


Atmospheric Pressure

by Camisado



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pokemon
Genre: Gen, NaNoWriMo, Pokemon Journey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2017-11-23 06:07:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camisado/pseuds/Camisado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calamity hits the Orange Islands, and one festival maiden takes it upon herself to investigate.<br/>[NaNoWriMo 2011 story]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_The distinction between climate and weather is one of scale. Weather refers to the state of the atmosphere at a local level, usually on a short time scale of minutes to months. It emphasises aspects of the atmosphere that affect human activity – such as sunshine, cloud, wind, rainfall and temperature._

_Climate is concerned with the long-term behaviour of the atmosphere in a specific area. Climatic characteristics are represented by data on temperature, pressure, wind, precipitation, humidity, etc. which are used to calculate daily, monthly and yearly averages and to build up global patterns._

Melody had read every book and paper on oceanography and meteorology she could get her hands on. She'd even contacted the Weather Institute in Hoenn, visited Professor Ivy on Valencia Island, and coerced Professor Oak's videophone number out of an unwilling Misty Waterflower. That incident was the reason she'd taken up Physical Geography at school and later at college – trying to prove it wrong, trying to prove there was a logical explanation.

Nothing. Nothing she found could disprove the fact that Legendary Pokémon were indeed responsible for the known world's climate. How did people that had never seen them believe in this? Or the people that had no idea what it was like to be at the centre of the ecological disaster ten years ago?

Sighing, Melody kicked her heels against the shrine's granite pedestal below her and looked out over the ocean towards the three islands facing Shamouti's cove. The sun was starting to set, bathing the water and islands in a rich gold, and sending shadows of silhouettes across the ocean surface. A silhouette of Zapdos's barren, dead shield volcano and its deep caldera. A silhouette of Moltres' perpetually active stratovolcano. And between them, casting the longest shadow of all, a frosty mountain stranded in the centre of a tropical archipelago, inhabited by Articuno.

Melody had watched them fighting, and their power terrified her. Never again did she want the guardian, Lugia – beautiful and awe-inspiring as he was – to be called forth to stop them.

Never again should the world be turned upside down due to the interference of humans.

Human interference was exactly what had happened. Had that collector not tried to remove Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno – ultimately Lugia – from their natural habitats, the balance would not have been thrown. Furthermore, what if the Chosen One hadn't happened to have turned up just in time for the festival?

Then again, Melody figured, it probably wouldn't have happened if he hadn't turned up. The legend said it would happen, and probably only with everything in place as necessary.

This was precisely where Melody had got with trying to find a logical explanation for the occurrences: nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Her thoughts simply went around in circles. Was it the fault of placing nature's balance in the hands of Legendary Pokémon? Or was it the fault of the humans for feeling they had to interfere? Or, just by chance, was it simply coincidence that the imbalance in the climate had happened at the same time as the Legendaries being collected?

On the bright side, at least the whole ordeal had given her excellent material for her last meteorology assignment and rewarded her with a useful qualification; though, if she was honest, she'd not given a passing thought to what she was going to do now she'd left college. Even the Hoenn Weather Institute had failed to interest her. Melody might like to travel, but she had no inclination of ever permanently leaving the Orange Islands, even if she moved from Shamouti Island.

Melody heaved an impressive sigh as the sun finally disappeared from view, and jumped down from the pedestal to start her climb back up to the main island and to the home she shared with her older sister and grandfather. She considered somewhat absent-mindedly that the annual Shamouti Legend Festival would take place in less than two months, and it was her final year as the Festival Maiden. Practice should probably be in order to make sure it was her best ever performance. It took her mind off obsessing over all her dilemmas, anyway.

As coincidence would have it, a ship silently appeared on the horizon as she turned away; unbeknownst to Melody and the other inhabitants of Shamouti and the Orange archipelago, something big was about to begin.


	2. Chapter 2

Under cover of night, the ocean transporter came.

Considering the owners of the ship, the contents being unloaded were fairly inoffensive; storage units, bits of picket fence, incubators and drums of Pokémon food. Following these items, out came furniture intended for a human living space. Each piece was carried by a seemingly endless crew of men, up to the rented house on the cliff – owned by none other than Melody's sister, Carol.

The operation was silent. Silent enough that only a few of the wild Pokémon in the vicinity were disturbed.

The ground floor of the house was outfitted efficiently and expertly by the ship's crew, beginning to bear more than a passing resemblance to a breeding and day care centre. The fencing and the human furniture was left strewn across the ground floor and upstairs of the house in vague room allocations for the new resident to sort out for himself in the morning.

And so, one young man was left behind to wave farewell to the transporter, muttering to himself about how he considered the size of it rather ridiculous for the job it had just done.

"Howard "Howie" Baker, age 24. Pokémon breeder."

"Hmm. Sounds like someone to keep an eye on."

"We're not _thieves_ , Liran," chided the owner of the first voice, passing her companion the night-vision binoculars.

Liran took them with a pout and watched the new resident lock himself in the house. "Maybe I think he's the sinister one. Who moves onto an island in the dead of night with the aid of a massive boat and a hundred men?"

Cisco plugged a mobile network adapter into her laptop and started it up. "I'm afraid I don't think it has anything to do with us."

Liran watched his partner uploading some incomprehensible strings of data to their allocated section of the organisation's "innovation" database. She stopped typing for a moment, staring blankly at the screen as if deep in thought. "Or maybe...he could help us."

"Huh?"

"We need test subjects! We can't just keep poking about with our own Pokémon. I mean, look at Lieutenant Wang." Cisco swivelled the screen of her computer, displaying a picture of Liran's prized team member – his Gengar – and all his detailed statistics. "That's just not right."

Cisco and Liran had joined this particular organisation because it happened to be the only one interested in their invention; modifying Technical Machines to work with absolutely any Pokémon. It had spawned from Liran's fondness for Delta series Pokémon trading cards as a boy, and Cisco's penchant for programming. Now they had access to the organisation's massive digital repository of TMs and as much money as they could appeal for.

However, for a reason beyond their comprehension, they'd been posted in the Orange Archipelago.

"Excuse me for interrupting, but what are you doing in my bushes?"

Cisco and Liran snapped out of their respective flashbacks to see a rather irritated young man looking down at them. He indicated their camp fire, tent, and Cisco's rather suspicious-looking equipment.

"We were here first, Howard," said Liran.

"All the same, this is technically my property. And I'm not sure how you know my name, but it's Howie."

\--

Melody woke up with a start to the sound of a very loud impact somewhere in the vicinity of her sister's holiday home.

She failed to recognise the noise. An explosion? No. It couldn't be. The Orange Archipelago was one of the most tranquil places in the known world to live – no real threat from the dubious organisations she'd seen on the news, or otherwise. At least not since the incident with the collector ten years ago.

Her ears pricked up at the distant sound of voices, and she listened at the window for a few minutes, cussing because she could not quite work out what was being said. The noises, she concluded after a moment of thought, indicated a Pokémon battle. Should she go out and investigate? Should she stay indoors where it was decidedly safer and take a casual look in the morning?

Melody let curiosity get the better of her, convincing herself that she should check it out since the noises seemed to be coming from the rental house the new tenant had moved into this very evening.

Shamouti Island was approaching Festival season in the coming month – the time of the year being one of the factors panicking her – and the streets had already become decorated with lights. Despite her worries, they were a welcome sight at this time of the evening. Melody ran down the flagstone streets as fast as she could, the thumping of her sandals and her heart almost drowning out the commotion ahead. Carol's holiday home sat on top of the next hill, the other side of the cove constituting Shamouti's natural harbour.

Melody slowed to a halt at the bottom of the hill, leaning to rest her palms on her thighs and get her breath back. She was a swimmer, not a runner.

"Wait..." she muttered to herself, controlling her breathing enough to hear what was going on up the hill.

Nothing.

"Nothing?" Melody sighed and pulled herself upright. She shivered, suddenly realising it was indeed the middle of the night and she was no longer active enough to stay warm.

As she turned to walk back to her house, disappointed, a faint murmur of voices could be heard, drawing gradually closer to her.

"What do you see?"

"Let me just..." the voice paused, as if concentrating on something else. "It's a girl a bit younger than us. Long hair, sort of auburn. Oh. Oh, Cisco, she's looking."

"That's because you talk too loudly, Liran."

One figure on the hillside – 'Cisco' – halted in the manner of someone alarmed, though the other continued walking towards her, one arm raised to hold binoculars. The hair pricked up on the back of Melody's neck, wondering who these people were and what they were doing heading towards her.

"Liran!" Cisco shouted. He stopped, turning his head in an irritated manner to look back at his companion. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Melody.

"Who are you guys, and what were you doing up there by my sister's house?" she demanded, resolving that it was best in this situation to stand up rather than running away. Besides, in the dark, they probably couldn't tell she was scared.

"We were camping," explained Cisco – Melody now recognised her voice as being more female than not, even though her figure was slightly ambiguous, as was her haircut – "and your tenant up there told us to take a hike."

"Not before I wiped the floor with his-"

Liran found a hand slapped across his mouth. "Quite. Anyway, love, we'll take our leave now. We don't really want to cause trouble. Well, I don't. Liran's another story."

Melody studied the two of them, dressed in what looked like a modified version of a company's uniform; black for the majority, accented with white and red. Cisco's hair was nondescript and short, bleached to a bright white, and Liran's appeared to have been chopped and coloured so many times that his hair was quite indescribable. It had settled at being slightly longer than his partner's, and a sandy blonde colour.

Melody held up a hand and waved indifferently. "Just don't go waking everyone up again, and stay off private property. You're welcome to camp anywhere on the island otherwise, of course. There's plenty of space." She cast one more dubious glance over them and turned to leave. "See you around."

\--

"No, Carol. I object. I didn't sleep well at all last night," Melody complained loudly into her pillow.

"Melody, darling, you yourself asked me to wake you up this morning, because you're helping our new tenant organise himself and familiarise himself with the island." Carol opened the shuttered windows and tugged the bed cover back. "And he's paying you for it, you freeloading student."

Melody snatched her sheets back, groaned and then sighed. Carol was about ten years older than her – approaching 30 – engaged to a guy known only as "Rip", who taught kids and tourists how to surf down on the beach. They lived together here, and Melody was indeed freeloading, having completed her education a few weeks ago.

"You, my dear sister, need some direction. And even if it's just a few part-time jobs, so be it. You're not just going to lounge around here and wander aimlessly around Shamouti with your head in the clouds for the rest of your life." Carol sat down on her younger sister's bed, taking care not to sit on any extremities of the silent body under the sheets. "The tourist industry here in the archipelago is huge, Mel, particularly around our festival. You could look at that. You're a good swimmer and surfer, so you could even help out Rip down at the beach. I think you'd be going to waste, though. Look at that amazing qualification you got in meteorology and geology. You should have contacted that place in Hoenn."

Melody sat up in bed, gazing out of the window at the ocean. The Weather Institute near Fortree City in Hoenn had been a consideration of hers, but, as she'd convinced herself thousands of times, she just didn't want to leave her home. Besides, she wanted to get out and do research, not sit inside a stuffy building and look at data – at least that was her impression from documentaries about it on TV. Even so, something had to be said for their methods, since contacting them had got her through several assignments throughout the last two years.

"Maybe for work experience," Melody mumbled bleakly.

Carol rolled her eyes and stood up. "Well, let's focus on today. Get ready and then head up the cliff to help our new friend, okay?"

"Whatev." Melody yawned, hearing Carol leave the room. Reluctantly she dragged herself out of bed and wandered into the bathroom to prepare.


	3. Chapter 3

Melody made a leisurely stroll along the waterfront. A radiant equatorial sun picked out copper, rust and auburn in her hair - a genetic trait that baffled so many members of her family. Market Street was different to the night before; the flapping and whistling of multicoloured festival flags in the wind was no longer ominous, and a warm, pleasant breeze sailed in from the ocean.

She ignored a chime from her PokéGear - probably Carol nagging her - choosing instead to sit on the sea wall and watch a family of Lapras congregating in the distance, babies included. She scolded herself for not bringing her camera, or having a communication device with such a built-in function.

Fishing said gadget out of her pocket, she reluctantly hit a button to display the new message. Just as she suspected: Carol demanding to know if she'd arrived yet.

`r u ther yet? dnt keep him w8ing!! xxx`

Melody wasn't quite sure whether to lament more her sister's interference or her thoughtless violation of the English language.

She dragged herself to her feet and continued with a remarkably brisker walk up the hill. She mused that this morning was playing out rather like--

A male voice cheerily greeted from nearby; "Ah, hello again!"

"Oh, you two from last night." Melody muttered, casting a cursory glance over the campers, and then stopping to stare.

Liran and Cisco sat around a kettle on a small camping stove, dressed in casual clothing. In Liran's lap was a snoozing Togetic and on Cisco's shoulder sat a young Aipom.

Around them was gathered a further assortment of seemingly well-trained Pokémon. Most noticeable was a sinister couple composed of a particularly menacing Gengar and a shifty but glamorous Mismagius, nursing an egg between them. A blushing Clefairy sat not far away, riveted by the monologue of a male Clefable.

Melody stumbled forwards as something warm and furry collided with the back of her legs; an Umbreon and Espeon play-fighting together in the coarse grass, crying happily, and clearly the closest of friends.

"Are these your Pokémon?" Melody asked, astounded.

A happy smile from Liran, followed by Cisco and her Aipom, answered the question. Melody smiled. The beauty of the scene had for the moment dissipated any doubt she'd had about her new acquaintances.

To her distaste, her PokéGear chimed once again.

`rang howie & ur nt ther yet!! hurry up mel! xxx`

Sigh. Carol had done nothing but interfere since Melody had finished college with no further direction. Her sister meant well, but it was beginning to grate on her nerves.

"I have to be off." Melody apologised, casting another look over the Pokémon. "Have a good day. It looks like a good one."

Cisco and Liran simply smiled and waved as Melody made her way further up the hill.

She looked up at the sky, out at the sea, down at the grass beneath her feet. The two of them had looked so happy with all their apparently well-trained, happy and healthy Pokémon. Maybe she could have considered the trainer challenge, at least until another opportunity arose. The Orange League only had four gyms and a championship; it would have given her something to do and time to think.

Perhaps it was time to make that trip to Valencia Island to register with Professor Ivy.

Well, after this odd job for this mysterious "Howie" person; an innocuous young man, of average stature for someone his age. Unkempt sun-bleached hair was held back from his face with a typical Recognised Pokémon Breeder's bandana - red with simplified Poké Ball motifs - further folded up and used as a headband.

As Melody approached, he was stood watching a small Poochyena frolicking amidst a distressed flock of Natu, barking happily. While the house looked distinctly like a daycare centre, it was unmistakably empty.

"You must be Carol's sister." Howie ventured, extending his hand. 'Melody, am I right?"

She nodded, taking his offered hand and shaking it firmly. 'Yes, I'm the less interfering one."

Howie laughed good-naturedly, running his fingers back through his hair so as to sweep it from his face, the effect of which lasted a good three seconds. "Shall we get started then? I'm afraid the first couple of days are going to be boring and kind of slow, but I'll pay you fairly and you should get some good experience. You like Pokémon, don't you?"

Melody's ears perked up; Carol hadn't mentioned pay.

She affirmed the last question enthusiastically, then explained to Howie the crossroads she was at. She wasn't sure if she'd make a very late (but not unheard of) entry to the Orange League, look for a job or development opportunity pertaining to her qualifications, or go into further education - though she wasn't too sure about the last one, if she was honest.

"Well." Howie said at great length after this monologue, ignoring the Poochyena now pawing at his leg. "If you're not sure you want to be a trainer, I'm sure you'll have made up your mind by the time I'm done with you."

•••

It really did turn out to be hard, but enjoyable work. The breeding centre attracted a lot of attention, as it meant inhabitants of the Orange Islands didn't have to travel to Johto or Kanto for a daycare centre.

Every day she worked was spent getting up at the crack of dawn - sometimes to relieve Howie for a few hours while he slept in - letting the hosted Pokémon out into the fenced-in area at the back of the building, preparing their food (differing per type and even sometimes per species) and manning the desk and phone.

Poochie had at first caused havoc, running between Melody's ankles, constantly tripping her and yapping incessantly. After a couple of weeks they'd become friends, and he quietly followed her around, occasionally even helping to herd stubborn guest Pokémon and bring brushes and other tools to her.

She had several challenges and mishaps. A tearful and homesick Azurill she'd had to stay with overnight until its trainer returned; several habitually aggressive Spearow, and the odd Thundershock or Ember sent her way by difficult inhabitants. Luckily enough, Howie made sure to pay her a little extra or treat her to lunch every time something untoward happened.

Sometimes they would work together, and Melody would talk about growing up on Shamouti Island, her family's role in its legends and her current status as Festival Maiden. Every so often Howie would ask her to bring her ocarina and play the song for him. He seemed ever so interested in her and the intricacies of the legends so deeply rooted in this part of the Orange Islands; in particular the happenings of ten years ago and her educated opinions on the causes. It seemed strange that he was so eager to learn about all of this but would never share much about his own childhood or interesting anecdotes.

All she learned about the charming Mr Howard Baker amounted to the fact that he was born in Lilycove City, Hoenn, and that the Poochyena - "Poochie" - was one of his three Pokémon. The others were a Sharpedo named Athena, with whom Melody had occasionally gone swimming and surfing, and an unnamed Crobat that seemed to spend most of its time in the attic space of the building.

Howie would never speak about how he'd got the funding for his daycare center, but Melody decided it was his business and it might be best not to press him about it. Besides, she was building a wonderful working friendship with him.

Today Howie was doing most of the work, and Melody was sat a little way away from the breeding centre, fondling Poochie between the ears as they sat on the cliff edge looking out to sea. She'd not seen that little family of Lapras since her first day at work, and it saddened her a little, especially since she'd brought her binoculars every day just in case. She hoped they were safe - rare Pokémon such as those beautiful creatures were sought-after and often ruthlessly obtained, especially the younger ones.

What else had happened on that first day? That had also been the last time she'd seen those dubiously inquisitive travellers, Liran and Cisco. Maybe they'd moved on somewhere else...

"Hey Melody, come and look at this!"

Poochie, startled, bounded off back towards the house, barking loudly. Melody considerably more carefully got up from the edge and made her way back in.

In Howie's hands was a large egg, a pale green colour flecked with a darker shade. Melody's eyes grew wide - she'd heard of Pokémon eggs but she'd never personally seen one.

"What is it?" She asked, awed.

Howie examined it carefully for a moment. "I'm not really sure. They seem to produce them inexplicably when nobody's looking. I picked it up and none of the Pokémon seemed to care, so..." He carefully deposited it in a wide-eyed Melody's arms. "I'm giving it to you as a personal project. It might even be something rare"

Melody stuttered, failing to comprehensibly form the word "what".

He simply chuckled. "It's yours. Whatever it is, it's yours."


	4. Chapter 4

"Melody, are you doing something important with all of our bandwidth today?" Carol enquired, poking her head around her younger sister's bedroom door. "We're trying to organise our wedding and honeymoon..."

Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Melody looked up from sitting cross-legged on her bed - egg nestled in her lap, computer sat on the bed in front of her. She had been reading documentation, scientific reports, and watching videos on taking care of eggs ever since she'd got home from Howie's, armed with some oversized noise-cancelling headphones.

Carol and Rip had been out when Melody had returned to the house, so she'd excitedly taken the egg and her laptop up to her room to do some research, entirely forgetting her dinner and any drinks.

"Didn't you think to ask if you could have that in the house?" Carol asked, pointing sternly at the egg.

Melody sighed and removed her headphones. "Carol, Howie gave it to me. I don't know what it is yet. If it's a Pokémon that will be troublesome, I'll keep it in a Poké Ball while we're indoors. In any case, I'll stop watching videos now you're home."

Carol looked frustrated, but not frustrated enough to start disagreeing. "Fine, but you'd better stick to it. This is our house. Rip and I live here too, you know."

She left the room, leaving Melody to continue wondering what kind of Pokémon was inside. Were all eggs the same size? Did that mean all baby Pokémon were the same size? She knew the markings often indicated what Pokémon was in there, but no amount of researching could tell her anything. Of course, all eggs were unique, just like every person and Pokémon was unique, but it didn't stop her wondering if she'd got her hands on an undiscovered species.

"It's green, so maybe it's a grass type?" Melody wondered aloud. She ran her hands over it - the shell was very smooth. "But then, there are flying types like Natu and Xatu that are green, and some alternate colourations of others…" she put her head in her hands, "You are a mystery, little egg!"

She located a breeder's bulletin board and quickly registered. Finding the forum she needed, she took a snapshot of the egg with her webcam and posted a new thread asking opinions on the species.

After half-heartedly refreshing the page a few times, Melody pushed her laptop shut, putting it into sleep mode. With the egg still nestled between her crossed legs, she lay back, gazing at the photos tacked to her ceiling. These were pictures taken for her college assignments; observations on the coastlines of Shamouti and its three neighbouring islands, detailed observations of rock formation, photographs of the cirrus clouds that forever mysteriously lingered around Ice Island's mountain, and the ash that constantly billowed out of the stratovolcano on Fire Island. What a meteorological nightmare the area was.

She absently picked up a plastic replica of the Shamouti's traditional ocarina and began to practice. She could never tire of the Guardian's Song - the peace and relaxation it brought her was amazing, and reminded her, frustrating as it was, that not everything she was worried about could be explained by earth science.

Melody always played with her eyes closed to help her concentrate, but her eyes snapped open when she detected an unfamiliar scent. It was faint, but it was very sweet and pleasant. She put the ocarina back on her bedside table and sat up, looking at the egg. It was moving the tiniest bit, and was definitely the source of the sweet scent.

"Yes," Melody said, placing her hands on the shell again. "I definitely think you're a grass type."

•••

Satisfied that evening was providing them with enough cover of darkness, two young visitors to the island put their latest plan into play. Cisco clipped a collar to her Aipom's neck, switching on a tiny device attached to it. She patted the little Pokémon on the head, reminding her not to stray too far, lest the signal be lost.

Aipom grinned and winked, making a quiet but swift run for the house. Cisco watched her climb a drainpipe and hang by her tail from the roof gutter, slightly above Howie's open office window. Cisco gave a thumbs-up and retired further into the bushes, making sure as she retreated that the voice was still clear.

"--remember all the interviews and reports from that incident. I mean, really, I'm renting this house from Carol Costello, her sister. There are no doubts in my mind."

Liran and Cisco raised their eyebrows to each other.

"I'm trying to persuade her to participate in the Orange League, so she'll be out of our way. What? Yes, she'll be easy to find. She trusts me, she'll tell me where she is if I ask as a friend. I can always send my Sharpedo or Crobat after her if needed."

Cisco removed her headphones for a moment, and suggested to Liran, "Do you think he's not really got dear Melody's best interests at heart?"

Liran nodded solemnly. "I did say he was suspicious, from the beginning."

They had grown rather fond of Melody; she always stopped to say hello and happily answer questions about attractions on Shamouti and surrounding islands. Umbreon and Espeon were also always pleased to see her, enjoying the attention she gave them.

"Liran, I'm worried something bad will happen to her," Cisco said at length, too uncomfortable to continue listening in to the conversation. She pulled a Pokémon whistle from her pocket and blew on it to recall her Aipom - much to Liran's horror.

"Cisco, you can't do that here!" Liran growled, snatching the whistle back. "There are too many Pokémon in the--"

Liran didn't need to finish his sentence. Not just the Aipom had heard the whistle; the entire breeding centre erupted into a cacophony of Pokémon voices. In a split second, a furious Howie had flung the window open wider, seen the panicking Aipom hanging from his guttering, and yanked her inside.

"Aipom!" Cisco cried, as Liran tried to restrain and quiet her. "Liran, we have to do something, Aipom's just a baby! She'll be so scared!"

There was a resounding crunch noise over the receiver as the transmitter from Aipom's collar was destroyed under Howie's foot. Liran discarded his headphones in agony, detaching himself from an anxiety-stricken Cisco in order to nurse his ears.

"Damn," he said, putting his arms around his shaking partner. "Damn. Cisco, she'll be okay. Melody works there; she won't let anything bad happen."

Cisco looked up at him, "Melody, that's right!"

"Cisco, it's too late in the evening to bother--" he stared incredulously as his partner got up and stumbled away into a run. He stumbled to his feet and gave chase. "Cisco!"


	5. Chapter 5

The main street of Shamouti Island was eerily quiet at this time of the morning, but that was the way Melody wanted it right now; she didn't want anyone to notice what she was doing. She was, after all, carrying a fairly large Pokémon egg directly through the streets. She hadn't found a bag she was comfortable with carrying it in, so she'd been forced to carry it in her arms every day to the daycare centre; she didn't want to leave it at home where it might hatch in her absence, or Carol might throw it out, for all she knew.

Every day she had made this journey early in the morning, but today Melody was extra-early, because she had someone she wanted to go and visit before she started work for the day. Someone she trusted, and someone she shared some special memories and knowledge with.

She located the shrine at the top of the hill past Howie's house, and then looked down the steep granite path around the right-hand side of it. There were blades of grass, hibiscus flowers and various weeds growing up through cracks in the path, and there was a fair amount of rubble. Melody bit her lip in apprehension; she should have found a bag to carry the egg in. She could have bought one; she wasn't short of money.

This visit had to be done, though, and she didn't have long before she would normally start walking to work. Carefully she secured the egg in her right arm, and, cautiously steadying herself with her left palm against the smooth cliff wall, she started her precarious descent around and below the shrine.

It was cool and shady in the cave mouth below the shrine, but still well-lit, and decorated by the wayward hibiscus plants that seemed to have the whole island in their clutches. Finding herself on the stable floor of the cave, Melody smiled as she recognised a familiar silhouette curiously advancing towards her. The being shielded its eyes against the bright sunrise outside, and then beamed back at her.

"Young maiden, I haven't been expecting you! I fear you're bringing bad news?"

"I wasn't sure how to forewarn you, Slowking." Melody said apologetically, "But no, it's not bad news. Well, it's not all bad news, anyway."

She shared with him the news about her egg, and her new job for the summer. It wasn't something she expected to be telling a Pokémon like Slowking, the guardian of the shrine, but he smiled as she told the story, intelligence and interest shining in his eyes, quite unlike his previous and alternative evolutionary stages. Slowking furrowed his regal brows when Melody told him what Cisco had come running to tell her the night before, however.

"Really? That's undoubtedly strange behaviour for a breeder. You should certainly keep your wits about you with this Howie character..."

Melody nodded, deep in thought. This was the first time she had seen Cisco or Liran for quite some time; she had missed them, and it had upset her to see Cisco as distraught as she was. At the same time, she had felt a great warmth to know that she would be the first person they came to in a crisis on their island; she hadn't had many friends at college due to her tunnel vision for her project on that life-altering natural catastrophe years ago, and new human contact was suddenly a real and welcome thing.

“Just keep your wits about you, young maiden,” was all the advice Slowking could offer at great length.

After a few more minutes of silence from Melody, he asked if she was feeling okay, and she responded by shaking off the question and beginning to discuss the legend festival with him. Hiding his concern to mull over later, he indulged in Melody’s distraction.

Soon, she had a flash of inspiration, untucked the egg from under her shoulder and inched it forwards towards him, “Slowking, are you good at identifying Pokémon inside eggs? I ask because you’re a psychic-type and you’re the most intelligent person I know.”

Slowking smiled in amusement, “Please, you are the one that has graduated now. But no. I can tell from the scent - as you likely have - that it is a grass-type, but I would have the faintest idea about what species is inside. I believe that’s part of the fun of hatching Pokémon, isn’t it?”

Melody’s walk back to the breeding centre was a slow one. Slowking had given her the impression that she shouldn’t trust Howie as much as she felt she could before, but also that she shouldn’t change how she acted around him despite the whole ordeal with Cisco’s Aipom.

She sighed and hugged the egg close to her. Was the Pokémon inside the egg possibly dangerous, then? Melody shook her head, reprimanding herself. She knew that there was no such thing as bad Pokémon; any actions perceived as bad could all be related back to their masters without fail.

“Good morning, Melody!” Howie greeted cheerfully. He was sweeping up in the tiled section of the outdoor enclosure, where the food was normally served up to the resident Pokémon.

Melody put on the most honest smile she could muster, “Good morning, Howie! I’ll just go inside and put my baby somewhere safe, and then I’ll come out and help-”

Howie quickly walked up to her, snatching the egg from her hands, “Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of the egg if you would like to continue cleaning up...”

She tried not to look angry, “No, I’ll take it, thank you very much. A friend of mine asked me to check on her Pokémon indoors, anyway. An Aipom. She’d like me to take her home.”

Howie gave her a long, contemplative look, and then handed the egg back to her, “Fine, you can do that. Tell her I won’t charge any fees for the overnight stay in this case. The poor thing was terribly anxious all night, I’d feel bad to charge.”

Turning away with the egg held closer than ever before, Melody sighed with relief and then steeled herself. There had to be something sinister going on here. It couldn’t be her imagination, could it? Howie hadn’t acted surprised when she’d mentioned the Aipom, but she wasn’t sure what she had expected him to say, if she was honest with herself.

She turned on the lights in the indoor enclosure and wandered down the long corridor of roomy cages. Howie operated on a policy of filling the ones closest to each end of the room first, as they were the closest to the windows. But at last, in the middle of the room, all on her own, she found Cisco’s Aipom.

Aipom had clearly been crying in the night, but she had since decided to hide herself away as far into the corner of the cage as she could. She recoiled when she saw Melody come close to the bars on the door, hiding her face behind the dexterous end of her tail.

“Aipom? Aipom, I’m a friend of Cisco’s, you don’t need to be afraid of me,” Melody said softly, poking her fingers through the wire experimentally, “You can hang out on my shoulders for the day and then I’ll take you to Cisco when my shift finishes. I won’t let Howie get you again. Now, let’s get you out of this cage.”

Aipom regarded her and the egg with her wide eyes for a moment, and then tentatively brushed Melody’s fingers with her tail. Slowly the signature Aipom grin spread onto her babyish face, nervous as it was. Melody smiled back and quietly slid the barrel lock open, then the door. The Aipom carefully edged closer to the opening, and then ran that same hand-like tail over the shell of the egg now balanced in Melody’s lap. This seemed to reassure her that Melody was her friend, and she finally leapt deftly over to sit on her shoulder, steadying herself by winding her tail around Melody’s other shoulder.

“Let’s go and do some work, shall we?” Melody said brightly, conscious of Poochie whining outside the door. At least she didn’t have to worry about Howie’s Pokémon being on her side; Poochie and the Sharpedo, Athena, had both become good friends of hers. She often wondered when she’d get to meet the Crobat that slept in the attic so much, and considered that she should make an effort to visit it some day soon.

Poochie turned out to be particularly jealous of Aipom’s perch on Melody’s shoulder, and reverted to yapping constantly and trying to tangle himself in her legs. Aipom responded by alternately pulling faces and giving him haughty looks, switching between Melody’s shoulders with an agility Poochie could only dream of one day when he evolved.

Howie didn’t talk to her much that day, and once his sweeping was done, busied himself with front-of-house work - dealing with customers - and sitting in his back office organising orders and payments. Melody found herself with rather a lot of work to do that day, but she couldn’t complain, and she was quite happy to spend quality time with her new friend Aipom.

She had sent Cisco a message a long time ago on her Pokégear, letting her know that Aipom was safe and that they were getting on like a house on fire. Cisco had gushed her thanks, but apologised for feeling that Aipom still wasn’t safe as long as she was still in that building. So Melody had decided to spend as much time outside as she could, in the hopes that Cisco might be watching her and see that the little Aipom was doing fine.

“You’re free to go,” Howie said matter-of-factly, about an hour and a half before Melody was normally due to finish her afternoon shift, “I’ve paid you for the full day.”

She looked at him quizzically, but his eyes remained averted and his expression unreadable. He held out to her the envelope of cash that he normally gave her at the end of the day, so she took it and stuffed it into the pockets of her jeans. She pulled the apron from over her head, making sure to remove her Pokégear from the front pouch, and handed it to him, “I’m just going to get my egg, then.”

Howie nodded and remained outside, sat on a fence post, until Melody returned. He still did not meet her gaze, and mumbled a goodbye as she left. Poochie emerged from the door and looked at each of them in turn, his head cocked in confusion.

“What do you think is going on there, Aipom?” Melody wondered aloud, waving a silent goodbye to Poochie, who was now wandering in circles around Howie’s stationary feet.

No sooner had she walked beyond visual distance of the breeding centre that Cisco ran up to her at full tilt, and Aipom, previously chattering absent-mindedly into Melody’s ear, became alert and made a flying jump for her trainer.

Liran ran behind, struggling for breath as he carried expensive parts of computer equipment that he obviously didn’t want to leave unattended at their camp during tourist season, “Thank god you got her for us, Melody, Cisco was terribly worried.”

Cisco looked up from her frenzied nuzzling and cuddling with her Aipom and said, “Yes, thank you so much, Melody, did you get into trouble? Did he act weird or anything?”

Melody shifted the egg in her arms, pleased to be free of Aipom’s weight on her small shoulders, “He did seem a little strange, yes, and of course he let me leave early with full pay...but guys, please don’t go checking up on him again. This was no trouble, but it was heartbreaking to see how Cisco was after Aipom was taken. Can you go back to doing whatever work it is you’re meant to be doing here?”

Melody had made a personal decision to never push them for what they were actually posted on the island for, and by whom. She liked them both, and she didn’t want to find out that some other people she trusted might be up to something strange and sinister as well as Howie.

“We’ll make a better effort,” Liran said, nodding in agreement.

Melody smiled halfheartedly, but knew they were far too interested in these goings-on; as much as she was. So she walked back to their camp with them, and she told them about her conversation with Slowking that morning. She made sure to leave out the information about the whereabouts of Slowking’s residence; she trusted her friends, but she didn’t want the information to leak out. When it came down to it, he was a rare Pokémon that could converse with humans, and he’d probably be a prime target for Team Rocket or the like.

“So your wise elder thinks you should be careful too,” Cisco summarised, looking out towards the ocean as she considered all this new information, “Well, I certainly won’t be sending my Pokémon near him again any time soon.”

“When it comes down to it,” Liran commented, “We _were_ spying on him. I think it’s probably against the law.”

Cisco shot him a look that could kill, and then turned back towards Melody, scratching Aipom’s chin as she did so, “Anyway, Melody, you should probably be getting home rather than spending your afternoon with us. Your egg is looking like it might hatch soon. I’m thinking it’s probably around the same age as ours.”

Melody beamed, “You think so? I should probably take it home, so it’s somewhere safe. Good luck with hatching yours as well!”


	6. Chapter 6

She awoke in the morning in her clothes, her laptop sitting on its side on the floor, and the power cable pulled taut between the power pin and the edge of her bed. She rolled over to relieve tension on the cable, and came down upon something with a crunching noise.

“Oh god! Oh god!” Melody panicked, scrabbling through pieces of eggshell, no sign of the Pokémon inside.

As she woke further and came to her senses better, she realised she could sense that sweet scent, stronger than ever before. She had slept without her head on her pillow, and she now rolled further onto her stomach in order to study the pillow.

There was a small being snuggled, asleep, on the pillow. The being was several shades of green, and a large leaf hung from the top of its head, acting as a makeshift blanket.

Melody’s eyes widened, and she held her breath in awe. This was her Pokémon, the Pokémon inside the egg that she had been taking care of so diligently. And she’d slept through the wonderful moment of its birth.

She pondered whether to wake the sleeping Pokémon. She decided against it, contented to lay and study it carefully. This wasn’t a Pokémon native to the Orange Islands or even Kanto; that was most of what she saw at the breeding centre. No, this must be from one of the other regions. Hoenn? Sinnoh?

Carefully Melody lifted her laptop back onto her bed, grimacing at the crackling noise made by the power pins. She’d probably have to have that looked at; the same thing had happened so many times and she really should have been more careful with the computer that had helped her earn her college degree.

She looked it up on the Internet. It was a grass type, she knew that much. She quickly filtered the results on her favourite reference site, by type and evolutionary stage, and did not have to scroll too far down to find her new baby.

“ _Chikorita_ ,” Melody read, trying to keep her excitement quiet, “ _Along with Cyndaquil and Totodile, Chikorita is one of the three starter Pokémon available to new trainers at Professor Elm’s laboratory in New Bark Town, Johto. Chikorita can spawn vines from its neck and create leaves from the big leaf on its head. Like many Grass-type Pokémon, its foliage emits a sweet odor that has calming and healing properties. This leaf also has the ability to check the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air._ Oh, wonderful! Your species is in tune with the climate as well. And you’re so cute.”

She decided she’d go and post back on the same message board she’d asked about the egg. Some people were still offering suggestions on her thread, mainly that it was a nondescript grass type egg, and so she took a sneaky picture on her Pokégear and swiftly uploaded it to the website.

_This is my new arrival! She was born in the night, so I didn’t get to see her hatch. I found her this morning sleeping on my pillow. Does this confirm that this egg colouration and pattern belongs to this particular species of Pokémon?_

Melody’s laptop made a sudden movement, preventing her momentarily from hitting the ‘send reply’ button. She made sure to do this, thinking her laptop had simply slipped in her lap. To her surprise, it made another one. She slammed the lid down to find a sleepy Chikorita nudging it with some force for such a newborn, and she quickly set her laptop aside to welcome the new arrival into her arms.

“Hello Chikorita,” Melody whispered, “my name is Melody, and I hope we can be best friends.”

Chikorita looked up into her eyes with her own wide red ones, and then, seemingly after a moment’s consideration, gave a large smile and snuggled into her new owner.

It occurred to Melody, as she got dressed and let Chikorita accompany her during her morning bathroom ritual for sheer paranoia of ever letting her out of her sight, that she didn’t actually own any Poké Balls. She wasn’t really sure if this was necessary, as she knew many Pokémon roamed free outside the balls. In fact, she wasn’t convinced that Howie had one for Poochie.

Melody panicked for a moment and looked at her clock. Thankfully, the clock showed her that it was in fact Sunday, and Howie didn’t ask her to work on Sundays. The breeding centre was however open, and she felt she should go and show him her new arrival.

“We’re going to meet the man that gave you to me,” Melody said, quickly checking on the Internet whether she should be protecting Chikorita from the sun or not; the Orange Islands were equatorial and had a beautiful tropical climate, which was known to reach extreme temperatures in the summer. Shamouti was also sheltered by the three surrounding islands and its placement right in the middle of the Archipelago. However, it seemed that Chikorita as a breed favoured the sun as hot as it came, so she decided not to worry. As a precaution, she fished her biggest sun hat out of her closet, thinking that Chikorita could ride in the shade on her shoulders should she get too hot.

There was a fresh breeze that day as she stepped outside the door of their house. Rip had gone down to the beach hours before anyone else got up, and she could see Carol vaguely in the distance wandering along the long stretch of market stalls, picking up the day’s fresh ingredients for dinner. Sunday was a family affair for her and her sister, and she knew they’d be eating a large family meal with their grandfather later in the day.

She turned in the opposite direction to the market, still cradling Chikorita in her arms. Her stomach reminded her that she hadn’t stopped to eat anything that morning, so she paused at the very last market stall in order to buy a quick snack. It also dawned on her that she had no idea what to feed her new Pokémon, so that was something she’d have to ask Howie when she got to the breeding centre. There were plenty of stalls in the market selling Pokémon food and other merchandise, of course. She was told that the Shamouti markets rivalled those of Slateport City in Hoenn, somewhere she’d always wanted to visit; big cities in the Orange Islands were few and far between.

The heat from the sun was pleasant in combination with the cool sea breeze, and Chikorita seemed quite comfortable as well. She was taking in the sights and sounds; some of them seemed familiar but once muted, and now filled with colour and life. She murmured happily to herself as they made their way up the coastal hill to Howie’s breeding centre.

“Melody!” a familiar voice called from nearby; it could only be Cisco, “Melody, your egg hatched overnight?”

Melody beamed, holding Chikorita proudly in her arms, “It did, Cisco, isn’t she beautiful?”

Chikorita regarded this strange young lady with wide eyes and awe; she was the second person she’d ever seen up close, of course. Cisco smiled back at her, crouching down to her level and sitting her sunglasses up on her head so that Chikorita could see her face fully. She had small features, and eyes a similar colour to Melody’s, but her hair could not have been more different.

“Liran, are you around?” Cisco asked, standing up and turning away to shout so that she didn’t startle the young Pokémon, “Melody’s egg hatched!”

Liran emerged from behind a bush, holding on to a quivering egg, their two ghost Pokémon following on behind, “That’s wonderful, Cisco. I don’t think ours is too far off now either.”

Melody giggled as the two rather sinister-looking ghosts started batting at him, wanting the egg back in their own hands - at least in the Gengar’s case. Mismagius was expressing her discontent by giving a low and slightly creepy moaning noise. Liran was visibly put off by this, and carefully handed the egg to his ever-grinning Gengar.

“Do you know what it’s going to be?” Melody asked, interested in the foggy patterns on the eggshell.

Cisco nodded, “If you take a look at Professor Elm’s website, you’ll see that there are some odd rules to Pokémon eggs...it takes the form of the mother, but can take some special attacks from the father. So, this will be a Misdreavus, but it might have some of the attacks only Gengar can learn.”

Melody quickly tapped out this information in her Pokégear - plus a reminder to check out Professor Elm’s research website - and then pocketed it again. She’d need all the advice on eggs that she could get, “I don’t want to leave you guys in a hurry, but I want to go and show Chikorita to Howie, and maybe get some free Pokémon food while I’m at it.”

Liran smiled, “Melody, judging from the size of her leaf and their love of sunlight, Chikorita will probably get most of her sustenance from photosynthesising.”

Melody stopped for a moment. She hadn’t thought of that at all, “Wow...so living in the Orange Islands is probably one of the best places on earth for a grass-type like her. Lucky you, Chikorita! It’s a beautiful place to call home. You’re going to grow up big and strong.”

Melody gave her friends a cheerful farewell and made the last of her journey up the hill to see Howie. She could tell from a distance that he wasn’t out in the fenced area, so she carried on round to the front door that led to the reception area.

“Howie?” Melody called, setting Chikorita down on the front desk and ringing the bell for service, “Howie, are you here? I have something amazing to show you.”

The house was quiet, and she hadn’t seen any visitors around for some distance. She frowned, and cradled Chikorita in her arms once more. She decided after a quick and fruitless survey of the downstairs rooms that she’d check out the upstairs of the house; somewhere she’d only been the few times Howie had asked her to collect something for him. It was his private home, of course, and she didn’t want to intrude, but something just didn’t feel right.

Slowly she climbed the stairs. She’d been in this house hundreds of times, and it always felt different every time someone new had lived in it. Today however, it didn’t feel very homely. Something definitely felt wrong.

It was dark in the stairway, but she could see light coming from one of the open doors. She could hear low voices; Howie and one other person she’d never heard before. Curiosity got the better of her, and so she crept up to the doorway and looked in. Howie had his back to her, and he was speaking to a man on his computer via a webcam and microphone; the same software that phones used in Pokémon centres and other public buildings, a larger version of the one used on the Pokégear and C-Gear portable phones. The man appeared to be in his fifties, and he sported black hair and a large black beard. He was dressed in a blue shirt, and seemed to be talking quite seriously and intently to Howie. She hadn’t really been concentrating on the words.

Melody decided she might get caught if she spied any longer, so she knocked gently on the door. Howie spun round in his computer chair in surprise and annoyance, minimising the window on the computer as he leaped up from his chair, “What are you doing here, Melody? How much did you hear?”

She looked surprised, “I’ve just got up here Howie, what’s the matter? I wasn’t listening in on your call, if that’s what you mean. I just wanted to show you this.”

His look softened slightly as he remembered that he could trust her, and he smiled as he looked down at Chikorita, “So this is what came out of the egg I gave you? She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

Melody, satisfied that she wasn’t suspected any longer, sighed a little with relief and then nodded, “Yes, I think she’s wonderful. Thank you for giving her to me.”

Howie looked back at his computer for a second, something that confused Melody, and then back at her, “So, are you going to register for the Orange League?”

She was taken aback, “Why do you say that?”

Howie ran a hand along Chikorita’s back, something the Pokémon was not sure if she should enjoy or take offense to, “Well, Chikorita is one of Johto’s starter Pokémon, and she’d be a wonderful first Pokémon for your journey.”

Melody looked down at her, then at the floor, and back at Howie, “I don’t know if that’s what I want to do with my life.”

“It doesn’t have to be what you want to do with your life; not everyone is a league trainer forever. You should go for it. There’s no time limit, no obligations; nothing. It’s just permission to participate in league battles, collect winnings from other registered trainers, use the Professor’s storage system, and participate in the finals.”

She bit her lip and wondered. It had been one of her options, but not something that really appealed to her. She loved looking after Pokémon, but would feel bad about sending Chikorita - or anyone else, for that matter - into battle, in case they got injured.

“Well,” said Howie, noticing her hesitation, “Why don’t you take a day off to visit Professor Ivy and decide what to do? She’s on Valencia Island.”

“Do you know how far it is to Valencia Island, Howie?” Melody asked, pulling an amused face, “You can do boat day-trips to Pinkan Island from here but not Valencia unless you take a passenger plane. And let me tell you, I don’t have the money for a commercial airline.”

Howie waved his hand, “A week, then. take a week off. You can chain your way there from Pinkan to Valencia, right?”

Melody thought about this, “I suppose I could, yes, Pinkan is a popular destination for visitors so I suppose there must be regular trips to and from there from most of the surrounding islands.” They stood in silence for a moment, and then Melody remembered something, “I’m sorry, you were making a phone call, I should leave you alone.”

A voice from the computer chuckled; the man had been silent all this time, probably listening in, “That’s quite alright, young lady. I have to assume you’re a young lady, anyway. Congratulations on receiving your first Pokémon. Howard tells me all about you.”

Howie and Melody made brief eye contact during which Howie flushed a pink colour and turned away, “Sir, please, that’s not appropriate.”

“You never call me ‘father’,” the voice lamented with a hint of amusement.

“Your father?” Melody asked, interest piqued, “Could I say hello?”

This was the first time that Howie had even come close to seeming like had a family, and so she was immediately intrigued. Howie did not seem too pleased about this, but the computer answered again, “It’s best that you don’t know who I am or what I look like, young lady.”

Melody raised one eyebrow in confusion, not letting on that she’d seen a brief outline of him earlier. Howie simply averted his eyes and nodded, shrugging his shoulders, “Come on, I’ll show you out. You have planning and packing to do back at home.”

Her walk downstairs followed by Howie was a silent one. She had lots to think about. And just how much was it going to cost to get to Pinkan and then Valencia Island? Was she going to have to stay on Pinkan overnight? Was there an extra charge for that?

“Keep me updated, won’t you?” Howie requested, giving her a reassuring pat on the back as she left the front entrance.

“You’re sure you don’t need me for the next week?” Melody asked, still apprehensive.

Howie smiled and nodded, “I’ll be fine, Melody. You’ll be fine too. Have a good time.”

And just like that, the door was shut on her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is admittedly a bit of a filler chapter, so I'll try to post the next one a bit sooner!

“Tomorrow? Seriously? How many more bombshells are you going to drop this month, Melody?” Carol demanded over Sunday dinner, one that comprised of lots of fresh fish and vegetables.

Melody took a long drink of her iced tea and then said, “I understand that you are a bit crazy because of your wedding plans, Carol, as you are normally a calm person, so I won’t take the shouting to heart. In answer to your question, I don’t plan on dropping any more ‘bombshells’.”

“The girl’s right,” said Grandfather, with a cheerful Chikorita sat in his lap, “You have gone crazy, Carol. The trip will be a good thing for Melody, she’s barely left our group of islands in the last ten years. You want her to do something with her time, anyway.”

Carol sighed at her plate and remained silent for the remainder of the meal. Melody flashed a smile at her grandfather, who winked back. Rip wasn’t sure what to do in the meantime, but was glad that his wife-to-be had stopped stressing at people for at least a little while.

“You will remember to practice on the ocarina though, won’t you, Melody?” Grandfather asked, pulling the most serious face he could muster.

“Oh, of course. I’m sure Chikorita will love to hear it, too.”

“You might even bring some rare Pokémon near to you on Pinkan Island, of course,” Grandfather added, nodding sagely, “You know how powerful the song is.”

Melody smiled, “Yes, and I’ve decided I’ll camp overnight on the Pinkan Island reserve. I discovered that it doesn’t cost much more than the day pass,” she moved some things around on her plate, getting more and more excited about the plans she’d been so unsure of before, “I’ve never caught a Pokémon before, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch something rare on Pinkan Island.”

At this, Chikorita started to look a little jealous.

“Oh don’t worry sweetie,” Melody said, smiling, “You’re always going to be the most special to me. You’re my very first Pokémon, remember? I’ve cared for you since you were an egg.”

Chikorita’s facial expression immediately changed, and she put on an outward sense of pride. She allowed Grandfather to give her a rough pat on the back.

“You’re a proud little madam, aren’t you?” Grandfather laughed, “You’re perfect for my granddaughter.”

“What does that mean?” Melody asked, sounding mildly offended. Carol giggled through her mouthful of food, and Rip put on a wry smile too.

“I think he’s saying that you’re both proud women, Melody,” Rip offered, “You’re both pretty stubborn, to be fair, as well...”

Melody pulled a further unimpressed face and continued eating her food in the same stoic silence as Carol. Rip and Grandfather laughed to themselves, exchanging knowing looks. Carol and Melody didn’t like to admit it, but they were just as stubborn and opinionated as each other. Carol just had a little more decorum in public.

“So you’re leaving early in the morning?” Rip asked as they cleared their plates from the family dining table.

Melody nodded, “That’s right.”

Rip took the plates she was holding, “Then go to your room and get ready and go to bed. We’ll take care of the dishes and tidying.”

She smiled appreciatively, “Thanks Rip, I will. I’ll make sure to say goodbye before I go.”

The first thing she made sure to do was pick up her two tickets for the ferry crossings between Shamouti and Pinkan, and then Pinkan to Valencia. She hadn’t really considered buying return tickets; she wasn’t sure when she’d come back. A further message from Howie assured her that she could take as much time as she liked, though she was aware that she should be back for the annual Legend Festival; something she wouldn’t miss for the world, even if she wasn’t to be performing. However, that was at least a month away now.

They’d cost somewhere in the range of ₶2,500 each, and she knew that entry and a stay in the Pinkan Island reserve would cost her another ₶5,000, though at least that included a catching fee for one Pokémon.

She smiled. She’d never wanted to start a league journey, but now here she was looking forward to her first catch, especially since it was somewhere unique like Pinkan Island.

It dawned on her that she didn’t have anything to catch this prospective Pokémon with. She chewed on her lip, a bad habit that she’d recently picked up due to her excitement and anxiety about the upcoming journey. Would the markets still be open? Some of them might still be clearing up.

She pulled a brand new pair of trainers from under her bed, and then decided against using them just yet and slipped her sandals back on. Passing Chikorita and her grandfather, she raced out of the front door and down to Market Street.

Luckily, the stalls at her street’s intersection with the famous market were the ones most densely populated with trainer items. She walked up to a friendly old woman that she’d often exchanged morning greetings with, and put a ₶10,000 note on her table, “What kind of ball would you recommend for Pinkan Island?”

The old lady smiled kindly and produced some balls from behind the table, “I actually think these would suit you best, young lady. They’ve been imported from Johto and Sinnoh. This is a handmade Friend Ball,” she explained, holding up a khaki-green ball, “An old friend of mine in Azalea Town makes them from a special fruit that only grows in Johto. I sell those marked up at ₶300 for their charm and rarity. It means the Pokémon will be a good friend to you from the moment you’ve caught it. And this one,” she now held a pink ball with a blue button and creamy yellow markings, “this is a Heal Ball, which heals the Pokémon immediately. These are ₶300 too.”

Melody decided she’d take them, along with a couple of Poké Balls, which completely depleted the ₶10,000 bill she’d brought with her. She thanked the old lady and carried them home in a paper shopping bag, all the more excited.

“Of course, Professor Ivy will probably give me some kind of starter kit,” she said to Grandfather as they examined them together, “But it’s good to be prepared, right? I’m also going to buy some potions and stuff on the ferry tomorrow - I think they’re cheaper in the duty-free...”

“You’ve clearly been researching this plenty in the last couple of hours,” Grandfather chuckled, and then stopped abruptly, “there’s something more in here, Melody.” He produced a black ball with gold and red markings.

“I didn’t buy that...” Melody said, taking it into her hands and enlarging it using the button, “I suppose it must have been a purchase bonus.”

“Ah,” said Rip, entering the room with a drink for Grandfather, “those are advertised on evening TV sometimes. That’s a Luxury Ball. They’re not cheap.”

At these words, Chikorita’s interest was at its height, and she proclaimed so, loudly. Melody giggled, as did Grandfather, “I see, you think this Ball is good enough for you, Chikorita?”

She set the ball down on Grandfather’s lap next to Chikorita. She wasn’t sure what to do at first, but decided the best course of action was to nudge the button situated on the front. And just like that, in a flash of red light, Chikorita was safely contained in the Luxury Ball.

“Is she okay in there?” Melody asked, slightly alarmed.

Rip decided to display his knowledge of late-afternoon Pokémon documentaries again, “There’s a big wireless metropolitan network covering the Orange Islands; the same one that Pokégears and other devices operate on. You’re currently using a new anonymous account for each Poké Ball until you’re registered with a Professor. So your Pokémon are all stored in a big central server until they’re ready to be called into battle.”

Melody grimaced and pressed the button to recall Chikorita out of the ball. She appeared in a flash of blue light, “Was it uncomfortable in there, Chikorita?”

Chikorita made a sort of negatory remark, but did not look like she particularly wanted to go back in the ball for now. She’d simply claimed the most luxurious ball for herself, and was pretty pleased about it.

Melody scooped her up and looked back at Rip, “So, when I get to Professor Ivy, she should link my Poké Balls up to my trainer account or something?”

Rip nodded sagely, “And if you get a Pokédex or maybe some kind of equivalent encyclopedia add-on for your Pokégear, you should get updates on what you’ve caught and more information on them, too. Yours is a Pokégear 3.0, right?”

“Of course,” Melody said immediately, “You and Carol bought it for me when I finished college, remember?” She flashed a metallic red, dual-screen clamshell device at him, “Everybody knows that Silph Co. makes the best stuff.”

The first Pokégear had been a hit in Johto, Kanto and its independent region of the Orange Islands. However, it had required expansion cards to add functionality to the initial phone, and it was limited to four of them. The newest - the one that Melody now held in her hands - was shiny and new, containing spacious onboard memory and two big colour screens, controlled by touch input. It had come a long way during its various iterations, and the Orange Islands editions had come with a large solar panel on the top to take advantage of the climate, making it very popular with native trainers and those visiting the area on their journeys.

“Goodbye for a week or two, then, Grandfather,” Melody sighed, standing up and giving the old man a kiss on the crown of his bald head, “I’ll be sure to call you. Let’s go to bed, Chikorita.”

Carol and Rip watched Melody wander out into the hallway and back to her room without a word to them.

“It’s not that she’s impolite,” Grandfather said with a fond smile on his face, “it’s just that she doesn’t think.”


	8. Chapter 8

It was early the next morning when Melody quietly made her way down to Shamouti’s harbour, where an express ferry to Pinkan Island was waiting. She’d picked out her favourite and most comfortable clothes; capri-cut jeans, the new red trainers that she’d rediscovered last night in the back of her closet, and a short red and white striped hooded top over a white t-shirt. Her hair was pulled up into tight twin buns rather than hanging loose in its usual two long tails. She felt like a Pokémon trainer, and she hoped that’s what people thought when they looked at her.

Essentials were packed into a small holdall that she now adjusted to wear as a backpack. Chikorita climbed out of her arms and sat on the flat top of this bag, enjoying her view.

She boarded the ferry with a smiling exchange with the gates-person. She elected to stand at the back of the boat, looking at the island she called home, that she’d be leaving for a little while. Well, some would call it a little while. This would possibly be the longest she’d ever left.

Melody gave a short gasp as she saw Cisco and Liran waving to her from the top of the shrine, and at the same time, Slowking had wandered out to the cave mouth to wave her farewell too. She waved back in their general direction, not wanting to draw specific attention to either of them.

Turning around, she could just see Pinkan Island in the distance. It was a slow ferry, as it often contained a couple of motor vehicles including second-class electric mail trucks that would make their way slowly between the islands via ferries and short road trips. She’d probably be on the ferry for a couple of hours at least; that’s why it didn’t make sense for most people to take just a day-trip to Pinkan Island from the surrounding area.

“So off we go on our little adventure,” Melody said excitedly, turning her head so that she could see Chikorita out of the corner of her eye, “Are you excited too, Chika? We can go and do all sorts of fun things together. I haven’t really had any close friends since I started college; I was too involved in my research. This might let me chill out a little bit.”

Chikorita wasn’t really sure what Melody was talking about, but she made some chirpy noises in response and nuzzled her left ear. The two settled with Melody leaning on the back barriers of the deck, watching Shamouti Island get slowly further away, metre by metre.

“We’d best get to the duty-free, don’t you think? I budgeted another ₶10,000 for this, and I don’t want to miss out on anything useful.”

The duty-free shop was a tiny market-style stall in the café area of the ferry, sandwiched between a hot food counter and a coffee kiosk. She put together a small essential kit of potions, ethers and an escape rope, then thanked the seller and returned to the outside deck.

Despite the wonderful weather, there were very few people on the ferry with her. There was a minimal amount of staff, enough to run the boat and serve customers on the inside. Some popular music was playing over the loudspeaker outside, and she bobbed up and down to it as she returned to her place on the handrails.

The sun began to rise higher in the sky, and Chikorita settled contentedly on the sun-flooded deck as Melody sat down against the cabin to join her in the glorious sunshine.

The day went on, and the two of them did little more than sit quietly together on the deck. Melody looked up the arrival time at Pinkan Island on her Pokégear, beginning to get a serious itch for adventure. It would be under an hour now. She decided to attach the Pokégear to a lanyard around her neck, ensuring that the solar panel was facing outward to take full advantage of its solar charging abilities. The battery would probably stay up for two days with minimal usage, but she didn’t want to risk being off the network because of a low battery.

Chikorita brought to her attention that they could now start to see Pinkan Island more and more clearly. If she squinted, she could see the pink fruit decorating all the trees on the island within sight, and a small amount of movement from some small wild Pokémon on the coastline. All of them, of course, pink.

“I wonder what we’ll catch to join us on our journey, Chikorita?” Melody wondered aloud, “I hope it’s something cute like you. I wonder what a pink Chikorita would look like. I guess you can try some of the Pinkan Berries and find out!”

Melody wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to communicate with Chikorita as freely as some of the trainers she’d seen; Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, for example. She figured that she’d learn how to communicate with her as their journey went on and they became closer and closer. Besides, it was only Chikorita’s second day out of her egg, and she couldn’t expect too much to begin with. She assumed that simply keeping up conversation would help Chikorita understand her.

The island was drawing closer, and the ferryman announced that they would soon be disembarking. Melody scooped Chikorita up and returned her to her perch on her shoulder, excitedly running to the back of the boat where they’d boarded and would be alighting.

The boat pulled in to the dock closest to the entrance gate to the reserve. It was decorated, of course, with pink and white lettering, and there were plenty of signs up advertising overnight stays in the reserve, as well as stern warnings about catching protected Pokémon.

Melody’s ₶5,000 bought her an overnight stay in the reserve, as well as permission to catch one Pokémon not featured on their protected species list. The officers at the gate inspected her bags, and asked her to leave behind all but one of her empty Poké Balls, “The Pokémon in the park are trusting of humans and don’t often resist capture, so we can’t let anyone take more than one empty ball in. By the way, would you like to hire a tent for an extra ₶500?”

Melody sighed and paid up with a wry smile, and was then handed a single-person pop-up tent. She wasn’t sure how she’d get it back into the bag tomorrow morning, and so she stared at it with uncertainty for a moment.

“It’s okay,” the officer laughed, “We send our staff round to collect the tents. They’re specially trained tent-wranglers. Just make sure you camp in one of these designated pitches, okay?” and he pointed to some circled areas on the map that were a slightly lighter shade of green than the rest of the wooded areas, “these are marked clearings and there are some basic amenities there.”

Melody studied the map and discussed the most desirable place to camp up for the night, and then she thanked the man that had helped her and went on her way, through the sliding glass doors and into the nature reserve.

Pinkan Island was perhaps a degree hotter than Shamouti; it was a little further south after all. It was full of life and noise that she hadn’t really been aware of before. She could hear bugs and birds and all kinds of rodent noises, though she could see none of them right now. The Pokémon might not be camouflaged among the greenery, but they certainly blended in to the abundance of Pinkan Berries that seemed to sprout from every tree, bush and shrub on the island. She read on the borders of her map that decomposing fruit could turn flowers pink, as well as anything else sensitive to dyes.

Melody suddenly became aware of Chikorita fidgeting on her shoulder, and so she apologised hastily, “I’m sorry Chikorita, would you like to come down and have a run around with the other Pokémon? Maybe you can try some Pinkan Berries if you’re well-behaved.”

Chikorita jumped from her arm well before Melody had intended for her to, and she landed a little shakily on her feet. From there, she lifted her leaf and sensed the humid air. This seemed to give her all the incentive she needed, and she ran ahead a little on her tiny legs.

Some Pidgey, aware of a new presence in the area, jumped down from the trees and flew across the path above Melody’s head, alarming her slightly. She smiled, laughing with exhilaration. Here she was in one of the most unique places on Earth! She carefully considered whether she’d like a Pidgey in her team, but decided she shouldn’t just waste her one catch on the first thing she saw. She had until midday tomorrow, after all.

During the hours they spent strolling throughout the island, the pair came across many different Pokémon, none of them seemingly wanting to harm Chikorita or her trainer. As the officers on the reserve gate had said, the Pokémon here were fairly tame and unafraid of her presence. They regarded Chikorita with some interest, as she certainly wasn’t pink, but other than that, tended to leave them alone.

“I’m still not sure, Chikorita,” Melody sighed as they stopped for a break near a small spring. Some fish-like Pokémon, most likely pink Magikarp, could be heard bubbling behind her. “I just haven’t seen any one Pokémon that I think we could take with us to be our friend. It just feels like there’s something missing around here.”

Chikorita made a noise that might have been agreement, though she seemed anxious to get back out into some sunnier areas. She stopped for a small drink in the pool, amused by the Magikarp swimming away from the rings she caused by lapping water; then she started bounding away up one of the paths they hadn’t taken yet.

“Chikorita, wait for me!” Melody laughed, leaping up to follow her. However, Melody wasn’t really sure where Chikorita had gone. She searched for a few moments in some sunny patches of undergrowth before she started to panic, “Chikorita, where are you? Please come back!”

With a cry of amusement, Chikorita re-emerged from some bushes a little way further down the path, her necklace of vines and the tip of her leaf now tinted a rosy pink.

Melody stood up and ran to join her, laughing at the scene, “Oh dear, let me take a photograph of you,” she said, snapping open her Pokégear and launching the camera application. Chikorita, who likely had no idea what a camera was at her age, instinctively posed for the shot.

Smiling, she decided to message it to Cisco and Liran, as it would amuse them. In the meantime, Chikorita had located another low-hanging Pinkan Berry and started eating it.

“Make sure you don’t eat too many of those,” Melody advised, “Someone might think you’re a native Pokémon and try to catch you.”

Chikorita looked alarmed, and immediately stopped eating. There was nothing worse in her mind than getting separated from Melody, that was for sure.

A brief and surreal moment of silence passed, during which time a cool breeze blew through the trees, and a small group of very pink Aipom, accompanied by a very large magenta Ambipom, swung through the branches above her head. The last Aipom sat on the branch and seemed to be beckoning her with its tail, so she decided to follow, Chikorita in tow. She’d learned a lot of rather more subtle Aipom mannerisms from Cisco’s little one, but nothing could be clearer than this.

It seemed to be a long way to wherever the Aipom wanted her to go, and she started to curse the fact that she hadn’t done a lot of exercising recently as her leg muscles started to ache. However, she persevered, and soon came to a clearing where a lot of noise seemed to be happening.

Something was in the middle of a crowd of Pokémon, sparking. The crowd seemed to contain some rather aggressive Pokémon; Mankey, Primeape, maybe some Spearow and some Nidorino and Nidorina to name a few. All breeds that you would probably not want to meet in a dark alley.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” Melody shouted without thinking. The crowd seemed to stop and look at her, while the fluffy quivering mass in the middle continued its sparking, “Go and pick on something else, you bullies.”

Chikorita wasn’t really sure about any of this, but she leapt up onto Melody’s shoulder and fired a good Razor Leaf into the crowd, dispersing them quickly. From her perch on a human’s shoulders, she had correctly assumed that nothing would question her.

The Pokémon left behind appeared to be pink - no surprise there - and covered in white fluff. It was clutching some berries that were distinctly not pink, and Melody imagined that it was probably what the other Pokémon were trying to take or get a look at. The berries seemed to be covered in pock-marks and scratches now, where the other Pokémon had tried to taste them.

“Hey,” said Melody calmly, trying not to get too close in case any of the static electricity hit her, “Hey there, are you okay? The others are gone now. Looks like you have some treasure.”

The Pokémon opened its eyes in surprised and stopped shaking. The sparks seemed to stop flying too. It looked up at Melody and then down at its armful of fruit, disappointed.

“Do you want to come with us?” Melody offered, holding out her hand in what she hoped was a welcoming and non-invasive gesture. The Pokémon regarded her with some suspicion, so Melody smiled some more and added, “You can come sleep in our tent where the other Pokémon won’t bother you, and we can work out what to do so it doesn’t happen again. How about that?”

The pink Pokémon looked at her still, and then at Chikorita, who was putting on her best and most welcoming face, despite the jealousy already setting in regarding Melody showing interest in other Pokémon. It decided that the two of them certainly didn’t look too malicious, so it made a sort of “baaa”ing noise in response and stepped a little closer.

“Umm,” said Melody, “So should we go set up camp or something, then?”

The Pokémon nodded in agreement, shifting its haul of berries in its arms. Melody stood and turned, checking her map briefly and heading off in the direction of a camp about a twenty minute walk from where they were. She explained the distance to both of her companions as they went.

Their new friend seemed to be anxious, checking around for other Pokémon as it tottered along behind them. The shiny sphere at the end of its tail made a pleasant jingling noise in conjunction with the sweet aroma that Chikorita gave off in bright sunlight. Chikorita turned and pulled a face, letting their companion know that it wasn’t quite as welcome to her trainer as first suggested. It simply responded by pulling a face back; it realised that Chikorita was a baby and wasn’t taking it very seriously.

“This looks good,” Melody announced, stopping so abruptly that the Pokémon bumped into the back of her knees. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

It scrabbled to pick up its fruit again and then nodded, knowing that being in a clearing full of humans, it would be safe.

She noticed a well-trimmed grassy patch and decided to throw the tent down there. She pushed the provided tent-pegs into the ground around it to hold it in place, and admired her handiwork. The ground around them was soft, and probably contained a lot of tropical moss. They’d be comfortable sleeping just on the groundsheet; besides, Melody hadn’t had the foresight to bring anything more than a few compact blankets for camping out.

As the sun started setting in the sky, Chikorita and the new Pokémon settled into separate corners of the tent, apparently unwilling to be friends. Melody was invited to go sit around a small controlled campfire with a few other people - some of them lone trainers, some travelling with companions, some sightseers without the slightest interest in catching anything there.

Melody became the centre of attention, being such a local girl, telling her stories of the Legend Festival and that one year that it had been all over the news coverage across the world. They recognised her somehow from blurry television cameras and obscure newspaper articles, and were held captive by her now expansive knowledge of meteorology and oceanography, and how she was trying to piece it all together. As a last favour to them, she pulled the plastic ocarina from her pockets and played the guardian’s song, something that seemed to please and calm all of them for a good night’s sleep.

She was also the last at the campfire, leaning back into the soft ground and watching the stars. She had vaguely remembered Chikorita coming out to find her, and curling up next to her. There was no sign of the other Pokémon for those hours she was sat outside; realising this, she got up and slowly nudged Chikorita awake, then carried her back to their tent.

There was a small pile of rejected parts of the berries, such as cores, stones and seeds, sat outside the tent. Moving inside and using her Pokégear camera’s flash as a light, she noticed something rummaging in her bag.

“Excuse me,” Melody said, “what are you doing?”

The Pokémon looked up, sheepish. Slowly it stopped what it was doing, piling things back into the bag and facing the corner, ashamed.

“I don’t understand,” Melody explained, “You live here, there’s a mass of Pinkan Berries around, why don’t you just eat those instead of...somehow finding other fruit and trying to take things from visitors?”

It did something similar to a human shrug, and sat down in the corner, more relaxed. It realised that Melody wasn’t going to punish it for doing this.

Melody considered her next words carefully, “and maybe if you would like to live a little better than this, you could come with us?”

Chikorita was tired, but gave Melody and incredulous look. This Pokémon? This one that had stolen from them and generally gotten more attention than her today? Melody smiled apologetically, hoping that Chikorita realised she was giving this new friend a chance to redeem itself.

The Pokémon ignored Chikorita and cocked its head. A trainer would mean a constant supply of food, and none of the shame of being a scavenger...and no hassle from other Pokémon on the island.

Melody produced the one Friend Ball from her pocket that she had chosen to bring with her. She maximised the ball using the button on the front, and set it on the floor, “Chikorita and I are going to go take a last walk along the lake here. You can decide what to do while we’re gone. Either way, you’re free to stay the night with us, of course.”

With that, she emerged from the tent, Chikorita at her side. She headed for a sparkling lake down a short path at the other side of the clearing, smiling at the snores she could hear from the tents around her. The lake surface was lit up with stars, giving it an almost ethereal feel. Melody liked being near fresh water when the opportunity arose; being around the coast and sea all her life meant that she never got to be near it. She leaned down to the surface and cupped her hands, taking a drink from the pristine waters.

Something seemed to be murmuring as she got near the water. Pulling her hair away from the water, she lowered her ear closer to the surface. Was she imagining things, or was that the song she’d been playing every summer for the past eight years?

Suddenly something caught her eye, and she leaped up to look at the surface of the lake. A shining outline of a familiar shape in a distant memory - she looked up and saw nothing, but on the lake surface could clearly make out the silhouette of Lugia, the guardian of the waters.

“What’s going on, Chikorita?” Melody cried as the water flashed the same brilliant green as the day it had poured from Shamouti Island's shrine to cleanse the ocean.

There was a brief gust of powerful wind that seemed to ruffle everything around them but her hair and clothing, and then everything returned to normal.

Chikorita looked confused. Melody realised that Chikorita hadn’t seen anything, and there were no people running from the tents to see what was going on. So was it a vision? Because she’d played the song? Because something was going to happen? Was it telling her that she was meant to be back on Shamouti Island? No, that couldn’t be right. That was a supernatural superstition. But then, so were those events all those years ago...and she’d witnessed them all with her own two eyes.

With a dull thud, Melody fell to her knees again, clutching at her head. What on earth was going on?

Disorientated, she crawled into her tent without a second thought for the Pokémon she’d picked up yesterday; it had been nowhere to be seen. Chikorita cuddled up to her with concern and they slept through past sunrise and almost into the afternoon, in deep and dreamless sleeps.

“Miss?” called one of the reserve’s rangers, peering through the partially zipped door of the tent, “Miss, you’ll have to leave the island in an hour, I have to ask you to get up soon.”

Melody jolted awake at the girl’s words. Had she really slept that long? That could have been time spent searching for a Pokémon to catch and taking in more of the sights.

“I see you’ve caught something there miss, may I scan the Poké Ball to make sure you haven’t caught anything listed as protected status under reserve authority guidelines?” she asked politely, pointing to a small pink and cream ball with a button that flashed red.

Melody’s eyes widened, “I had no idea. Certainly, you can take a look. I didn’t see it on the board when I came in,” and handed it to the ranger, who produced a strange scanning device from her belt.

“Everything seems to be fine,” she said with an amused smile on her face that Melody wasn’t really sure was appropriate, “Please, get up in your own time and I will collect your tent in half an hour.”

She sat up and stretched, and then looked with wonder at the Friend Ball that now contained something. Could it have been the Pokémon from the night before? There probably wasn’t time to wonder. She was clear with the rangers and that was good enough for her. Now she had just an hour to find her way to the other port that would take her to Valencia Island.

Carefully she deposited the ball in her bag and studied the map. Meanwhile, Chikorita clambered up on to her shoulder. Melody worked out from the location of the lake in the clearing which way she should start walking, and so she took off at a reasonable pace. She wanted to stop for water, but she didn’t want to walk past that lake again.

She had to get those visions out of her mind. They would only trouble her, while this was a journey intended to take her mind off all those worries. It was probably just a bad dream; Chikorita certainly wasn't still dwelling on it, as far as she could tell.

There were people up ahead that she recognised from the night before. Assuming that they were also making their way to the south-western ferry terminal, she slowed to their pace and kept her distance. She didn’t want to speak to anyone today; she’d only end up talking about last night, and they’d probably lose all respect for her or think she was trying to impress them with made-up stories.

She fished around in her bag for a snack. She found a blue berry - an Oran berry? - before she put her hands on the cereal bars that she’d put in there the morning before. Strange; had the Pokémon from last night tried to make up for rummaging through her bag by giving her a gift?

“Chikorita, would you like to try this?” Melody asked, holding it up to her shoulder. Chikorita gave it a cursory look-over before she accepted it and ate it in tiny bites from Melody’s hand. She wasn’t going to risk eating the Pinkan berries again after Melody’s warning yesterday.

Melody wolfed back her cereal bar with her free hand, and then wiped Chikorita’s remaining berry juices on her jeans. That’s what jeans were made for, after all.

Thankfully she passed the same small spring from the day before, and stopped to take a long drink and wash her face. She smiled down at the Magikarp below the surface as Chikorita started pawing at the water. Catching a glance of herself reflected in the spring, Melody pulled a brush from her bag and worked to make her hair look a little more presentable to the people she’d no doubt be accompanied by on the ferry.

She must have been closer to the port than she’d expected at the time yesterday, because it was just another ten-minute walk from there. She was fairly eager and seemed to be one of the first people there, but she chose to duck out of the line that was forming and sat on the shore, admiring the ferry that had just pulled in.


	9. Chapter 9

“Welcome, please step into my office,” invited a gentle voice. It was late in the evening and Melody was the last of Professor Felina Ivy’s appointments for the day.

Professor Ivy was a tall and beautiful woman, and not the kind of woman someone pictured when they imagined a scientist. Her assistants were mousy little women, but she was busty and feminine and confident.

“Melody Costello, from Shamouti Island. Have I heard of you before?” Ivy’s eyes almost glinted in interest. Her demeanour, as she leaned on her hand in a relaxed manner, put Melody at ease.

Melody blushed and looked down at Chikorita in her lap, “Yes, I was involved in a large natural phenomenon almost ten years ago.”

“Fascinating,” said Ivy, “but you probably don’t want to talk about that. Shall we register you under the Orange League? I see that you already have your own starter Pokémon. Can you tell me how you came to acquire it? This is for personal interest you understand, rather than a formality. I like to hear stories from trainers who already have their own Pokémon.”

Melody nodded enthusiastically and then told the story of Howie moving on to her island, giving her the egg as a gift, Chikorita hatching during the night, and all of their travels up to there. Professor Ivy momentarily frowned during her anecdotal references to Cisco and Liran, but she didn’t bring it up with Melody at all.

“And so you caught a Pokémon last night, too?” Professor Ivy wished to confirm from the story.

Again, Melody nodded, and handed her the Friend Ball from her bag, “I didn’t stop to check what finally crawled in there...I was too worried about missing the ferry and getting my appointment to register with you.”

“This is a Flaaffy,” Professor Ivy said, scanning the ball under some of her machines. “Those aren’t very common on Pinkan Island. Was it acting strangely at all?”

Melody swallowed the lump in her throat. It wasn’t common? Had she caught something she wasn’t meant to? Although the ranger had said it was fine to take...

“It was hoarding food that wasn’t native to Pinkan Island,” Melody said, “And the ranger did sort of laugh when she scanned the Poké Ball as I left. Is there something wrong?”

Professor Ivy was surprised, “You don’t know? This is a normal Flaaffy. They’re pink naturally. That one wasn’t eating Pinkan Berries because it doesn’t habitually. My guess is that it’s a stray and it’s been collecting food from trainers on the ferries.”

Melody’s mouth hung open and she struggled to form words, before blurting out, “But I paid the catching fee to catch a rare pink Pokémon!”

The professor looked at her sympathetically and then said, “Actually, this is the rarest Pokémon you could have caught on Pinkan Island. One that isn’t meant to be there. Now, let’s register these on your network account. Could I have your Pokégear number and your Poké Balls, please? Chikorita will need to be back in her ball for just a few minutes.”

Chikorita also seemed calm and even slightly enamoured with this strange woman, and happily obliged. Ivy took the greatest care in scanning and registering Melody’s Poké Balls, and soon handed them back and issued her a plastic credit card-sized ID. The photo had been taken when Melody entered the professor’s laboratory, which she had assumed to be for security reasons, so she’d happily provided a photo. She was pleased that it seemed to have captured her good side.

It stated her name, her home island, her starting Pokémon and the date of registration. There were gaps on the card where the gym leaders could add tiny stamps to confirm defeat of their gym in addition to awarding badges, and space on the back for her signature.

“If you ever lose this,” Ivy said, handing it to her, “You just have to send me a message identifying yourself from your Pokégear-associated account, and we will try to get one to you somehow. Usually from your nearest convenient Pokémon Center or Poké Mart.”

Melody carefully pulled her wallet from her bag and inserted the trainer ID into a new slot. Ivy also presented her with a small metallic orange trinket box to keep her badges in, and introduced her to an RFID device that would let her download the latest version of the electronic Pokédex onto her Pokégear. She opened up the Pokégear and sat it on top of the pad, watching as an automatic download started, progressed and completed.

It immediately picked up her trainer ID from her Pokégear. She smiled and released Chikorita from her Poké Ball, eager to try it out. It seemed that it operated mostly using the camera and microphone of her Pokégear, and so she pointed it at Chikorita to try it out.

_Chikorita, the Leaf Pokémon. Chikorita uses the leaf on its head to scan for warmth and humidity in its surroundings, and loves to sunbathe._

“Your other Pokémon will already be in there, as it is registered on your network account,” Ivy commented, leaning in to scroll down the Pokédex index screen until she found “Flaaffy”.

_Flaaffy, the Wool Pokémon. Flaaffy builds up electricity in its thick coat of fur, but is unaffected by it thanks to its rubber-like skin._

“Professor, doesn’t my Flaaffy’s tail look a slightly different colour to you?” Melody asked, looking at the Flaaffy on her screen and then at hers that was accurately represented on the monitor of Professor Ivy’s storage system computer.

Ivy looked at the Pokégear screen and then at her own computer, “I’m not terribly sure, it could just be something to do with the colour profiles on our different screens. You should let me know if you find out anything interesting about it, though, especially if she evolves; I would be sincerely interested. You know that the Orange Archipelago is famous for Pokémon of alternate colourations to the mainland.”

Melody nodded, amazed by how Ivy made her feel less bad about her mix-up in capturing. At least she knew she’d done Flaaffy a favour; travelling with Melody would mean that she never had to go scavenging again. “My Flaaffy is a she? I’m sorry - female?”

Professor Ivy smiled and confirmed with a single nod, “Yes, I noticed also that your Chikorita is female. Only one-eighth of Chikorita are born female, you’re very lucky.”

Melody had a hard time imagining something as feminine-looking as a Chikorita having males in the same species, but of course it made sense. There were very few that split off into separate genders, even during evolution.

“Is there anything else you’d like to ask me?” Ivy asked, glancing at her wall clock.

The new trainer snapped out of her thoughts, “Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I’m taking up so much of your time! I should go - I’m checked into the Pokémon Center tonight. Thank you for everything, Professor Ivy. I’ll be sure to let you know if I come across anything you might find interesting.”

They parted with a polite goodbye, and Melody returned to the outside of the lab after confirming with the front desk’s security officer that she was indeed the same person she was when she went in, and that she hadn’t stolen anything or otherwise been inappropriate.

The sun was just starting to set now, and Melody wandered slowly through the streets, in no hurry to get to the Pokémon Center. She enjoyed the balmy evenings in the Orange Islands; warm breezes and no sign of a chill until late at night.

The streets of Valencia Island were a lot more modern than the quaint harbour-side and beach-front community on Shamouti Island. Well-known chain stores were scattered along the streets, and she could see a large department store in the distance. She realised she was hungry, so she stopped at a little kiosk serving savoury crepes, and sat outside at one of their tables with Chikorita, sipping at a glass of chilled horchata; Valencia Island’s specialty drink made from tigernuts. The owner took a liking to the young Pokémon and brought out a cup of water for her to drink from while she waited for Melody to finish her dinner.

Melody left as she was conscious that the owner would probably want to gather in his tables and shut up shop for the night. Giving her thanks and leaving a small tip, she asked directions to the Pokémon Center and went on her way.

The route directed by the kiosk owner took her through a small park in the middle of the town, and she sat for a moment on the edge of a fountain in the centre. The fountain was decorated by a Pokémon sculpture in the middle; a Lapras sitting atop a pedestal with waves carved into it. Below, Magikarp and Mantine spat a steady flow of water into the fountain. She smiled and snapped a photo of one of the Mantine, framing the Lapras above in the shot. As much as she’d loved spending time and surfing with Howie’s Sharpedo, Mantine had always been one of her favourite Pokémon and maybe she’d get to catch one on this journey to call her own.

Melody made a conscious decision to release Flaaffy from the Friend Ball. Hopefully any bad feelings Flaaffy had might have been negated by the effects of the Friend Ball. Melody was troubled by the way these balls and the global storage network seemed to manipulate Pokémon, but it was worth it in this case. She figured that a stray might be hard to handle, so ideally the effects should have calmed her down a little.

Flaaffy appeared in a flash of blue light, and she looked around with wonder. This island felt familiar to her. Very familiar. She turned and looked at Melody suspiciously, but couldn’t help but feel a sense of trust towards her. Besides, this girl was going to look after her.

Chikorita was on her lofty perch on Melody’s shoulders once more, and seemed to be trying to instill a sense of importance in her. Flaaffy decided to ignore her once again and happily followed behind Melody as she beckoned her; they were off towards the Pokémon Center to settle down for the night.

It was perhaps a ten-minute walk. In that time, Melody talked loudly to both of her Pokémon about her plans for the next couple of days. She was planning to make a short holiday out of this stay on Valencia Island, though she’d have to reconsider accommodation after tonight if the room wasn’t free again. Pokémon Centers normally gave free accommodation to trainers, but they could make a suggested donation to the running of care centres and get a single room that shared much more pleasant facilities. The shared rooms didn’t appeal to Melody; she rarely got a good night’s sleep in the same room as anyone else, Chikorita excused. Besides, she had worked hard for so long and now she had some cash to spare from working with Howie. She deserved this, and it meant there was more time alone to bond with her two companions.

A junior nurse welcomed her, and asked to see her trainer card to confirm her identity. Melody was glad that she was able to get her trainer card with Professor Ivy that day, or she would have had trouble proving her identity for her forthcoming bookings.

Melody’s trainer card was swiped over an electronic pad and then handed back to her. The nurse explained that she should swipe it through the slot by the door of a vacant room and then that room would be assigned to her for the night. She asked quickly about the availability of the other rooms for the forthcoming nights; the nurse smiled and advised her that there was room tomorrow, but not the day after. Melody put down her deposit for the next night and went off to find her room.

“This one!” Melody declared as they came to the end of the corridor. She swiped her card as she’d been instructed, and entered the room. It was basic but clean and pleasant, with a wider-than-average single bed and a small en-suite toilet and shower. A large window was located along most of the wall opposite the door, and Chikorita and Flaaffy leapt up to get a view from the wide windowsill. Meanwhile, Melody stowed her bag under the room's simple desk and then collapsed onto the bed. She had already fished out the charger for her Pokégear; it hadn’t lost much charge overnight on Pinkan Island, and the solar charger had certainly topped it up over the day, but she was paranoid about it running out of power when she most needed it.

She joined Chikorita and Flaaffy at the window. She hadn’t realised at first that the Pokémon Center was on the edge of town and very close to the edge of the island too, at that. She could see the sea from her window, and the crisp and clear evening was setting in. They could admire a multitude of stars and constellations from this window.

Melody took this moment to gaze at the sea for a moment and think about what had happened the night before. It must have been tiredness, surely. Curious, she wandered back over to the closet and rummaged around for the plastic ocarina. After a moment’s panic, she managed to find it tucked carefully into one of the pockets. Flaaffy had obviously come across it the night before and taken utmost care with it.

In the knowledge that the rooms either side of her were vacant - at least, they had been when she’d entered hers just five minutes ago. She laid down on the bed and played, the feeling familiar to when she played in the same position at home. Realising after a few notes that she had an awful lot more floor space than usual, she got up and started to trace the familiar steps of the festival maiden’s dance. Chikorita and Flaaffy watched with interest as Melody danced and played the song; something that had required months of training to gain the coordination to begin with, but as she had tried to practice once a week since then, it was second nature.

Caught in the moment, Melody finally jumped forward and declared, “Hear ye all! From the trio of islands...” she trailed off, realising where she was. The two Pokémon that had climbed down on to the bed were now watching with intent interest. She wondered if they were feeling the same way she was; like something was just not right with the world right now, and clinging to the legend felt like one of the best things to do.

Setting the ocarina down on her bedside table, Melody sat down between them, “Should we go to bed, guys? It’s been a long couple of days for all of us. And welcome to the family, Flaaffy. I’m sure the two of you will be friends in no time.” She meant this more as a suggestion than friendly chat, and looked pointedly at both of them.

Chikorita audibly huffed, but did not want to disappoint Melody. Not making eye contact with Flaaffy, she extended one of her vines out to her in a kind of handshake. Surprised and pleased, Flaaffy accepted it and shook it gently.

“Wonderful,” Melody declared, pleased. She stood up to strip down to her underclothes and then climbed into bed, inviting the two of them to curl up against her. With Chikorita snuggled up to her stomach and Flaaffy laying up against her back, she fell asleep contentedly, pushing thoughts of anything sinister to the back of her mind.

•••

She had a dream. In the dream, she was stood on the shrine at Shamouti Island, and Slowking was telling her something very important. He looked desperate. Melody tried to make sense of what he was saying, but there was a significant radio silence form him, and an uncomfortable roaring sound in her ears. Suddenly the sky went dark above them, and she looked up, as did Slowking. Above them towered the massive ship of the Collector, and it was about to come crashing down on the both of them.

Melody awoke with a gasp, sitting up but somehow not disturbing her sleeping companions. According to her Pokégear sitting next to her on the table with the ocarina, it was around 3am. She knew someone that wouldn’t mind her calling.

“It’s very early in the morning young lady, what’s your trouble?” asked Grandfather’s comforting voice on the other end of the phone.

Melody paused, feeling a little homesick at the sound of his kind voice, “Grandfather, I think I’m having visions and dreams. Please don’t think I’m crazy. But I think I need you to talk to Slowking, because something has to be going on.”

There was a brief, almost awed silence from her grandfather’s end, but then he composed himself, “Please, tell me more.”

Melody told him about the vision she had seen the night before, and the dream she had just had. She told him that it had coincided with her practicing the ocarina, and that she felt very strongly about the legend festival right now. She added that Chikorita and Flaaffy had been fascinated by her performance and seemed almost listless afterwards.

Grandfather gave her some comforting words, and then promised that he would go down to see Slowking the next morning. Melody thanked him for his time, almost tearful, told him that she missed him dearly, and then wished him goodnight.

The phone rang again, and she picked it up immediately. It was him again; “Melody, I should tell you, Carol said that the Weather Institute called for you, about a letter you sent them. You have your Pokégear, could you make sure to contact them soon? It might be a big opportunity.”

“Yes,” Melody said with a smile, “Thank you Grandfather. Please enjoy your night’s sleep, and be careful going down to Slowking’s residence tomorrow. You know you’re not as young as you used to be.”

Of course, Grandfather didn’t enjoy his night’s sleep. He was worried about his favourite granddaughter, and he was now growing concerned about the power of her visions and what it might mean for the islands again.


	10. Chapter 10

The Orange Islands were hit with a monsoon the next day, which did not help with either of their moods. Chikorita and Flaaffy looked out of their spot on the windowsill, appalled by the weather. monsoons were common in the height of summer, but it wasn’t necessarily the right time now.

Grandfather made his way to the shrine in the heaving rain, eyeing the concealed steps down to Slowking’s cave with apprehension. Luckily for him, Slowking had already sensed that he was needed and climbed to the top of the shrine himself. With a kind smile, he invited the old man to take shelter behind the shrine’s pedestal with him.

Slowking did not seem surprised at Grandfather’s news, something that did not fill the old man with confidence. Mid-conversation, something made a ringing noise in the pockets of his cargo pants; Melody’s oldest and most rugged and usable Pokégear that she had proudly handed to him upon receipt of her old Pokégear 2.0. It was her calling; Grandfather apologised to Slowking and took the call.

“Grandfather, I can hear the wind and rain there! I hope you’re not trying to climb down in this weather!”

“Don’t worry child, Slowking came to meet me at the top. We’re sheltering under the shrine right now,” Grandfather became aware of Slowking moving in on his personal space, as if hinting something, “Hmm... Slowking, did you want to use the phone?”

Slowking accepted the Pokégear in his blunt paws and held it up to his crown, as close as he could get it to his ears, “Young maiden, can you hear me through this communication device?”

Melody giggled at the thought of Slowking using anything technological, “Yes, Slowking, I can hear you loud and clear. What do you have to tell me?”

“Your visions; they must be distressing for you. You may want to come back to the island earlier than you planned, just in case the island needs you back. You are, of course, central to our legend festival, and it seems as if something is trying to claw you back.”

Melody sighed inwardly, “Slowking, I just paid for tonight’s accommodation.”

“Well, of course, none of us would want you to travel back in this weather. Please, stay the night and assess the weather situation in the morning.”

The line went dead, but Melody could only assume that Slowking had tried to hand the Pokégear back to her grandfather and unintentionally ended the call. A quick call back from Grandfather confirmed this, and she left the call happier than she had been, despite the issues that had apparently come to light during the phone call.

Melody remembered the call she’d had very early that morning, and quickly looked up the contact details for the Weather Institute. She picked out their email address from their website and composed a polite email apologising for her absence when they’d tried to call the day before.

After a short nap induced from the early wake that morning, she was woken by a notification from her Pokégear. The scientists had replied already!

It was a single line in an email. Send us your storage network ID and keep checking your boxes.

Melody knew she could trust an organisation like that, so she snapped a photo of her trainer ID and sent it to them. So many good things were coming out of getting that ID. She wondered what they were going to send her; it was possible to send items over the network too, and she couldn’t expect a Pokémon...could she?

She went to the front desk, leaving Chikorita and Flaaffy in her room, and asked if she could use one of the public computers. The nurse from last night was there again, and nodded and directed her to them.

“By the way, I very much enjoyed the song you played last night. I took the room next to you shortly after you went in, since I was standing in for someone’s night shift” she looked down at the counter, “I feel sort of sad today, though.”

Melody stopped and looked at her, “I’m sorry, I’ve been having weird feelings about the song too. If you still feel you’d like to explore it in a couple of months, please come to the Shamouti Legend Festival. It should give you some understanding.”

The nurse made eye contact with her, and then smiled and nodded nervously. Melody walked over to the computer without another word between them. She looked up how she was meant to get home. There were no passenger planes to Shamouti; it relied on floatplane and small ferry transit from the surrounding islands, as building an airport would violate local protection laws due to its rich natural and cultural history.

It looked as if she could fly from Valencia to Kumquat Island and then get a floatplane every half hour from there for a small fee. She didn’t like the look of the prices in comparison to the ferries she was used to using, but she couldn’t afford to be picky right now. Maybe she could ask Howie for some overtime when she got back.

She booked her flight for early the next morning, and took advantage of a complimentary shuttle bus from the gardens with the fountain that she had visited the day before. She’d be home by midday at this rate. Fantastic; she needed to see Grandfather and Slowking at least. Even just setting foot on the ground at Shamouti Island would probably make her feel all the more better.

Realising she was hungry, she went to collect Chikorita and Flaaffy from her room, and shoved some money and her Pokégear into her pockets. Again, she had registered her flight tickets to her trainer ID, and she would just have to present that and scan it at the commercial airport. Nothing to print. It all felt too convenient, but she was grateful that she wouldn’t have to think too hard about what she was carrying in the morning.

She stood in the glass foyer for a moment and tried to work out if there was a café or restaurant nearby that she could run into. Something with bright lights - a diner - looked inviting enough, and she withdrew her Pokémon into their Poké Balls so she could make a mad, wet dash diagonally down the street to the diner.

She was one of very few people in the diner, and she ordered a hearty Valencian breakfast for herself and something nutritious for her two Pokémon. She released them next to her; Flaaffy sat on a chair opposite her while Chikorita took her place on the table. There weren’t many other Pokémon around, but Melody felt that hers were probably the best-behaved. There was a Snubbull a few tables down shovelling food into its mouth, while Chikorita and Flaaffy picked daintily at the bowl presented for them to share.

Melody felt cold after the run through the torrential rain, and ordered a hot tea. She wasn’t sure what she’d be able to do for the rest of the day in this weather, and she sunk into her chair with her Pokégear to check the local attractions. Sadly, most of them relied on the normally wonderful weather of the entire Archipelago, and there was very little that interested her without getting drenched.

She looked up to find Flaaffy acting very nervously, and Chikorita backing across the table towards her. Melody quickly removed her cup and saucer from Chikorita’s path, and noticed two people near the window looking over at her. A Zubat was hovering near them, and it seemed to be the cause of Flaaffy’s discomfort.

The two people were a man and a woman. The woman had red hair, she could tell, but most of it, like the man’s, was hidden under a blue bandana. They sported striped t-shirts and blue trousers too, and were talking in hushed tones.

Flaaffy let out an involuntary jolt of electricity - Melody could attribute this to the high air pressure as well - and the Zubat staggered back throught he air to its owners. Melody stood up, almost spilling the tea she’d tried so hard to save, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but your Pokémon was making mine nervous and she kind of zapped him a little...”

The two people regarded her suspiciously, but didn’t seem to be angry or concerned about the well-being of their Zubat, “That’s okay. We’re sorry about that as well.”

It perched on the woman’s shoulder, shaken. She paid little attention to it as she picked at a muffin, and the two of them talked quietly and took glances back at Melody. She decided that they had probably seen her on the news or something before, and were trying to figure out if she was part of the Shamouti legend. She had gotten used to this, but interest had tailed off in recent years. These people didn’t seem too local; Valencia Island was the main hub for people entering the archipelago and it was quite possible that they were tourists.

“Are you from Hoenn?” Melody ventured to them as she passed them.

“How did you know that?” the man asked before his partner could interject with what was likely to be telling Melody that their business was none of hers.

Melody smiled and shrugged, “I’m a meteorology student. I noticed that you don’t seem to be from here, but you have too-consistent tans for people from Kanto or Johto. Hoenn is southern, so it’s one of the only places with a climate anywhere near as warm as ours.”

She realised that this was quite a strange thing to be saying, and she hoped that he hadn’t come across too weirdly. The woman turned in her seat to face Melody, and gave her an unnerving smile, “You certainly know a lot. Do you think I could get your Pokégear number?”

Melody was taken aback, but she was flattered that someone appreciated her knowledge so much, “Certainly, I’m always happy to talk about the weather.”

The man looked out of the window, inviting her to explain the ongoing rain and winds.

Melody smiled, “Okay, so right now, there’s a thermal low over a large land mass - it could be Kanto, as there’s a lot of summer heat cycling through right now - and the combination of different temperatures from the land and the sea are combining into a storm. Rainfall happens when another area of low pressure forms between the clouds and the land - it doesn’t really happen over the sea - and then the wind and rain come down.”

The two looked impressed but still slightly devious. Melody exchanged details with the woman anyway; her name was Lorrie. With that, she bade them farewell.

Melody withdrew Chikorita and Flaaffy back into their Poké Balls once more, and she looked across the street from the door. She’d be working in a zig-zag on her way back too, though she hoped that the rain might clear up later. There was a bookshop across the street, something that would probably amuse her for an hour or two, especially if she was allowed to browse at her leisure. She hoped that maybe there were some good books there that she hadn’t managed to find when she was studying on Shamouti Island.

It was clean and modern, but also quite dark - this could have been due to the absence of much bright sun that day, though. Someone behind the counter mumbled a timid “hello” as she entered, and she smiled in their general direction and ascended a small set of stairs at the back. A plaque at the top of the staircase said that the book store was meant to emulate the library-style museum and gym in Nacrene City, Unova, and was only very recently reopened, according to the date at the bottom.

Right at the back she found the natural sciences books. There were a few from famous researches she recognised, and most of the books were based on the Orange Islands, with a few interesting ones talking about Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and the more distant regions of Unova and Orre. Melody picked up a glossy-covered book that gave an in-depth overview of each of the regions. She cringed a little at the price, but she would be glad to have something interesting and unique to read on the flights back home.

Another section caught her eye; one that dealt with customs and legends. She smiled at a children’s paperback book that explained the Shamouti legends and the events she’d been involved in. The book depicted a “beautiful festival maiden” and she giggled at it. She snapped a photo on her Pokégear and sent it to Carol, for her to show Grandfather.

She flicked through the book a little more before placing it back down. Another book that seemed to be discounted to half price gave an overview of the legends and superstitions across the world. Checking the price against the one she had just picked up, she decided to buy that one as well. She could afford it right now, and it looked interesting. Besides, this price was better than any Internet shopping website could offer - a quick browse on her Pokégear confirmed this.

The timid person at the till kindly took her money, counted her change carefully, and took the liberty of wrapping Melody’s books up in several layers plastic bags so that they could survive the rain outside. Melody also pulled her bag from her shoulder and placed that inside too - it wasn’t a waterproof bag, and she didn’t want it getting any wetter.

“Is there a library here, by the way?” Melody asked, looking out of the door with some hopelessness. It wasn’t midday, and she wanted to amuse herself some way other than sitting around in her room at the Pokémon Centre reading books or wandering out to the public computers.

“There isn’t, I’m afraid,” the meek cashier advised, “but there’s a natural history museum that’s free to enter - Professor Ivy often presents there - and there’s a lovely café there, I hear.”

Melody smiled and thanked them, and then checked again on her Pokégear as to the location of the museum. It was a ten minute walk away, but then a bus had pulled up on the other side of the road and she ran over to take her chance on it.

She seemed to be at the wrong end of the circular route right now, but she paid her very competitive fare and sat down with relief in one of the central seats. Sighing, she looked around here. The other people on the bus seemed to be old people or commuters, and there was a sign up asking that no loose Pokémon were brought onto the bus. This seemed unfair, but Melody supposed that not everybody particularly liked Pokémon, and some people were probably allergic. She recalled that she and Chikorita had only been allowed limited access to the cabin on the ferry because of this.

She checked her email again, to the judging looks of some older people on the bus. Melody had learned not to care; she was embracing technology and felt good about that. She deleted some pointless newsletters that she had intended to unsubscribe from, and then read over the email from the Weather Institute again. What exactly did they mean? She was quite excited, but she was also curious.

Melody switched to her browser and checked the Weather Institute website again. There were no recent press releases that gave her any clues, but she slipped into reading an article about weather affecting certain species of Pokémon such as Cherrim and Cherubi in the Sinnoh Region.

“Valencian Museum?” the driver called, noting that Melody wasn’t paying attention to where they were, “Miss, didn’t you request this stop?”

Melody jumped up, shoving her Pokégear back into her pockets, “Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I was reading a really interesting article from the Weather Institute,” she mumbled as she then thanked the driver and made a mad dash for the museum entrance. The stone steps were slippery with water, and she was glad of the rubber soles of her baseball shoes.

Inside, Melody lowered the hood of her jacket and looked around. She was only in the foyer, but that foyer seemed to be a kind of large terrarium. The first room had several doors leading to rooms and passageways - each part of the known world was carefully emulated in a small space under carefully monitored conditions.

She decided to start at a logical beginning; Kanto, the first region to document all 151 species of its native Pokémon.

She meandered later into the Orange Islands section, the Johto section - an old fashioned place with a rich history that she’d always wanted to visit - then the Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova areas. Each of the areas had interesting notes about Pokémon native to the areas, such as variations in forms and colours. Of particular note were some breeds of fish and slug Pokémon that were different colours depending on the part of the region they came from.

Melody sat in the café with her second hot tea of the year and looked out of the expansive windows at the still depressing weather. The café was comprised largely of glass, and she could see rain coming down heavily and then pouring in waterfalls from the round ceiling down to the ground.

She unwrapped her book about legends and slowly peeled the price stickers from the glossy sleeve covering its hardback binding. She wondered what the book had to say about the weather titans from Hoenn; Kyogre and Groudon. She knew that when they warred, they caused blinding sunlight or severe storms. In the book, a story was described where two opposing criminal organisations wanted to take the titans for themselves and increase or decrease the land mass depending on their favour for sea or land-dwelling Pokémon. It called them the “red team”, who used Groudon’s power, and the “blue team” who used Kyogre’s power. She pored over the story with interest - most interesting was the fact that there was a third party, Rayquaza, that would arrive to stop the fighting between them and stop the adverse weather conditions. Melody considered that this was not so dissimilar from her own legends back on Shamouti Island. She’d ask the Weather Institute how they thought this worked, she decided. It might help her unlock the answers; for so long, she’d been working on an earth science scale, and never from the view of natural science.

She later got back on a bus that looked as if it would take her back to the Pokémon Centre. Thankfully, this was the terminus and pulled straight up to the door so she was able to say a hasty thanks to the driver and run inside.

Melody smiled to the nurse on the counter; it was a different woman this time. She wandered off to the left of the reception desk, down the corridor where the rooms were.

She went to swipe her card in the door, but the door was ajar. Frowning, she wondered whether to go back to reception, or proceed into the room. She decided the latter. It was a Pokémon Centre; it had to be safe, with so many people around and so much security. She entered the room, and suddenly everything went very dark. She had been blindfolded by unseen assailants and now they were holding her hands behind her back.


	11. Chapter 11

“You see, Miss Costello,” said a sneery and somehow familiar voice, “When you give your details to someone via Pokégear, they can work out how to find you. They can search for your name on the Internet and discover who you are, when you’ve been involved in something as big as you have. They can also ask around at your accommodation and get some very helpful information from the nurses on how to find you.”

Melody remained calm and silent. She was aware that she was still gripping on to her bag, and she clenched her teeth. Could she release Chikorita and Flaaffy to safety? What was going to happen to all of her other things that she had brought with her or bought on her stay here?”

She berated herself inwardly for using her Pokégear so much today. It had barely topped up when left to rest on the table at the museum due to the stormy weather, and she had never needed it more than now.

Melody thought carefully, while remaining silent as the two people in the room bickered about what to do with her. She recognised their voices from today, certainly. Then she bit her lip in realisation. Of course, the couple in the café who had made Flaaffy so uncomfortable, and had been acting very suspiciously, now she thought about it.

“We’re going to keep you blindfolded,” the man told her, “And we will take you away from this island. We will not confiscate any of your possessions at this time-”

“Of course we are, Julio,” the female voice - Lorrie - berated, “She can’t hold on to that Pokégear, she’ll just be making calls with it and telling people where she is,” and with that, Lorrie snatched the Pokégear from its place in Melody’s jacket; she could see the square imprint on her pocket.

Well, there went any chance at getting rescued.

Melody remained silent as she was sat on the bed. She heard the two of them searching the room for her possessions; they didn’t seem the sort of people that were really too sinister considering what they were doing, what with the care they were taking with her possessions and her comfort.

“We’re leaving through the window. Don’t make any noise, or we may have to use force,” Lorrie advised, holding on to Melody’s forearm firmly. They had apparently removed the entire pane of glass from the wide window, and she stepped down from the windowsill onto the ground quite comfortably.

The noises behind them suggested that Julio was carrying a lot of her things. Melody spoke for the first time since she had been captured, “Could I please carry my own Poké Balls? I am a new trainer and I’m uncomfortable with being away from my Pokémon for too long.”

Lorrie came to a stop and nodded her head at Julio, who rummaged around in Melody’s bag and pulled out the two balls that held Chikorita and Flaaffy. He somewhat awkwardly put them into Melody’s jacket pockets and zipped them up for safety.

“Thank you,” said Melody, and she smiled. Julio and Lorrie weren’t sure what to make of her actions, but they continued.

They started to scale a cliff face. Lorrie advised her to watch her step, as the steps here were makeshift and often only used by Pokémon. Melody sighed and wondered where they were going. It was terribly wet out here, and the path was getting slippery. She didn’t particularly want to end up in the sea while blindfolded; there would be no way out of the sea unless she managed to swim round to the beach, and it wasn’t nearby.

Finally she felt metal under her feet. She stepped on it a bit harder and it made a resonating sound, and bobbed up and down, seemingly riding on the waves.

“Is this a submarine?” Melody wondered aloud.

“Don’t ask questions,” Lorrie snapped back, but Melody could hear a door being opened near her feet, and then she was manhandled down into a narrow tunnel by her and Julio. More hands grabbed on to her legs and lowered her to the floor.

Lorrie and Julio returned, and they led her down another narrow passageway. Another door was opened; this time it was upright. They threw her possessions inside, removed her blindfold, shoved her inside and bolted the door shut from the outside. Melody staggered to her feet and looked out of the porthole window on the door; there was one on the outside wall of her room, but it was shuttered. She saw Lorrie and Julio walking away, so she didn’t bother banging on the door. There was no way they’d release her until they got to their destination.

It was something of a jail cell; there was a basic toilet and basin near the door where it afforded the most privacy, and a small bed; nothing like the luxury in the Pokémon Centre. She threw her bags under the bed and sat down on it, shivering. She hadn’t planned her wardrobe for cold and wet journeys inside a submarine with no daylight.

Melody stood up and twisted the inside shutter away from the sea-side porthole window just as the submarine descended into the water. Sea water roared over the porthole and the top of the small submarine, and she collapsed back onto her bed. She watched through the window as some Magikarp swam by, accompanied shortly by a shoal of Goldeen and Seaking. At least she could comfort herself by watching them from her window; she couldn’t complain about the view.

She pulled out her more expensive book from the bags Julio had brought. She laid out on the bed and flicked to the pages that detailed sea maps of the Orange Islands and nearby coastal regions.

Melody was facing away from the island, and there was nothing but black depths in front of her as they descended further and further. Every so often there might be a Pokémon swim by her window, dimly illuminated by the submarine’s safety lights. It was eerie, that was for certain. In all her life in the water-rich Orange Archipelago, she’d never been in a submarine, but the sea never made her afraid.

The book wasn’t really on a workable scale for her to figure out where she was, but she made some good guesses. She noticed that she wasn’t really turning, so they must be heading west from Valencia Island. Pulling a pencil from her bag, she gently marked an X on the map where she’d been staying. She hadn’t walked far from the Pokémon Centre when she’d been kidnapped and taken down the cliff path, so it was a reasonably safe guess.

She studied the pages before and after. They noted particular colonies of Pokémon breeds, and she continued to watch out of her window. If she craned her neck a little, she could almost see the sea floor below, where the odd Krabby might be wandering across the sand and rocks.

Hours seemed to pass, and Melody was conscious that she had not released Chikorita and Flaaffy from their Poké Balls recently. She stopped watching out the window to do so, and then attempted to release them. The button flashed red on both Poké Balls. Melody considered that this far down, she was probably out of the range of the metropolitan network links - but at least Chikorita and Flaaffy were safe in the storage network.

Conspicuously alone, Melody returned to her vigil at the window. She noticed a large group of Corsola below her, and ran back to her book. There was a scientifically known colony of Corsola at a point just outside the Orange Islands, to the northwest. Melody added another X mark on the map. She was travelling away from the Orange Islands, without a doubt.

Tiredness soon overcame her. She had been up early, and she’d done so much during the day before she’d been captured. She figured that she could afford a small nap and she wouldn’t miss too much of the journey. Just in case she was yanked out of her room before she got back to her mapping, she tidied it all away and stowed it under her bed again. Laying down more comfortably on the bed, hanging her jacket to dry and crawling under the covers, she laid her head down on the pillow; and suddenly she was out like a light.

•••

Grandfather had been waiting for messages from Melody all morning. She was meant to have boarded a commercial flight early in the morning, and should be at Kumquat Island to get a floatplane back to Shamouti by now. He started to - correctly - fear the worst.

“Perhaps you should ask those travellers she’s been hanging out with,” Carol suggested, assuming that Melody was fine, and had just failed to communicate anything to her family; it wasn’t unheard of.

“Travellers?” Grandfather asked, ignoring Carol’s disregard for Melody’s safety; he hadn’t shared the news about potential upcoming disasters with anyone other than Slowking.

Carol nodded, “They seem to be particularly interested in Howie, who rents our letting house as a breeding centre. You can probably find them there.”

Without another word, Grandfather left the house and made his way up the hill in the pouring rain again. At least this time he had taken an umbrella - strangely, there was torrential rain and no wind. He had pulled his rubber boots out from storage and was glad of them today.

He came across a large tent hidden between some palm trees and shrubbery near the house, and could hear voices inside it. Venturing up to it, he called, “Hello?”

A young man with shoulder-length orange hair unzipped the tent, perhaps five years older than Melody. A girl with very short white hair was sat next to him, and both sported black and red clothing. Surrounding them was a great deal of computer equipment, and an Umbreon and Espeon were sat next to them, cuddled up and clearly not enjoying the weather outside.

“Are you friends with my granddaughter?” Grandfather ventured, looking over the two of them, unsure. They seemed rather suspicious people with all this equipment and their matching clothes.

“If her name is Melody, yes,” the girl replied, “Hello, I’m Cisco, and this is my partner Liran. Can we help you? She’s meant to be returning home today, am I right?”

Grandfather nodded, “If you could please help in any way you can...we fear something strange is going on in relation to details of the Legend Festival and we haven’t received any communication from her this morning. Are you able to tell me where you think she could be?”

Liran immediately suggested, “If we could get hold of her laptop, we’d like to see if we can locate her Pokégear using the bundled software. Other than that, we don’t really know how to help you.”

Since Grandfather looked at them quizzically for a moment and didn’t commit to anything, Cisco added, “You can supervise our use of her computer. We have no interest in any of her personal or financial information.”

The old man nodded, “Very well. Come with me, and I’ll welcome you into our family home while you assist us in finding her. Thank you for being good friends to her.”

“Certainly,” Cisco said, with a hint of professionalism in her voice, “Liran, would you like to secure our possessions and I will let you know our location when I get there?”

Grandfather smiled as Liran agreed but looked annoyed, while Cisco pulled on a thick raincoat and zipped Umbreon into it with her. She stood and smiled at Grandfather, inviting him to lead the way.

It was a short but silent walk back into the main town, and Cisco followed behind Grandfather like an obedient and unquestioning Growlithe. The old man led her to a house built in Shamouti’s distinctive historical style; mostly wood and palm leaf thatch, and bricks painted white where they were used. The inside of the Costellos’ house was sparsely decorated with traditional furniture and the wooden walls were whitewashed on the inside. White marble flooring welcomed her, and she slipped off her black boots at the door. Releasing Umbreon from her jacket, she also hung her coat up on a nearby rack.

Grandfather directed her to a room at the end of a wide and brightly lit hallway just off the living room. The room was of a generous size for a secondary bedroom, and it was decorated in neutral colours, but maps, posters and photographs of the Orange Islands were pasted up around the room, and a laptop and a TV with a digital receiver and video game consoles sat around the room, games piled up forgotten under heaps of books on geology and earth science. Bound or stapled copies of Melody’s essays and research papers laid neatly on her desk, next to samples of rock from the three surrounding islands used as paperweights.

“It’s so her,” Cisco said, making Grandfather smile, “If you don’t mind, I’ll try to log in to her laptop.”

Cisco was faced with no such challenge, as the laptop booted into its operating system and presented her with Melody’s administrator account in a highly welcoming manner. She cringed, but she carried on; Grandfather didn’t need to know about the bad security, as he probably didn’t understand computers very well.

She soon located the icon for the Pokégear synchronisation software. She launched it and cancelled the prompt for connecting the device to the computer, and then clicked a hidden option called “Find My Pokégear”.

Umbreon meanwhile was winding his way around Grandfather’s legs, and he leaned down to pet him. He purred in ecstasy, and Grandather grinned down at him.

“His name is Blackberry,” Cisco said, turning to smile at the pair while the page loaded with the Pokégear’s last known location, “You’ve made a permanent friend now; he won’t let you stop petting him.”

“He’s beautiful,” Grandfather commented, looking up over Cisco’s shoulder, “What do you have there? She’s still in the Orange Islands?”

Cisco nodded and pointed at various locations, “She was getting a passenger plane to Kumquat Island, and she would have turned her Pokégear back on there to let you know where she was. Her last known location was this Pokémon Centre on Valencia Island; she hasn’t even made it to Manises Airport on Valencia. What should we assume? She can’t still be asleep.”

Grandfather paused for a moment, “Well, could you get me the contact details for the Valencian Pokémon Centre, please?”

Cisco nodded and obliged, quickly finding them on the Internet. Grandfather made a call, while Cisco remembered to let Liran know where she was so that he could join them.

Grandfather leaned down during the call to write another number down on a scratch notepad on Melody’s desk; the number for the Valencian police. Cisco assumed the worst, and pulled Blackberry onto her lap to hold him in her arms for comfort.

“She’s been kidnapped,” Grandfather said, anger seething under his normally composed exterior, “She was taken from her room with all her possessions and taken down the cliff path to a water vessel.”

Cisco squeezed Blackberry a little harder, to his chagrin, “But she could be anywhere by now!”


End file.
